BAPTIST  MISSIONS 
IN  THE  SOUTH 


MASTERS 


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BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN 
THE  SOUTH 


Bapti^  Missions  in  the  South 


A   Century   of  the  Saving  Impact  of  a   Great 

Spiritual  Body  on  Society  in  the  Southern 

States. 


A  Manual  for  Mission  Study  Classes  and  an  In- 
structive Story  for  the  General  Reader. 


By 

VICTOR  I.  MASTERS,  D.  D. 

Editor   of   Publications   for   the   Home   Mission 

Board  of  the  Southern  Baptist  Convention^ 

and  Author  of  Baptist  Home  Missions 

and   Home   Mission   Task. 


Puplished  under  the  auspices  of  the  Baptist  State  Mis- 
sion Boards  of  the  South  and  of  the  Home  Mission  Board, 
by  the  Publicity  Department  of  the  Home  Mission  Board 
of  the  Southern  Baptist  Convention, 


Copyright,  1915,  by 
THE  HOME  MISSION  BOARD  OF  THE 
SOUTHERN  BAPTIST  CONVENTION. 


ToivnUy  &  Company 
Printers  and  Binders 
Atlanta,  Georgia 


PREFACE 

Baptists  have  had  no  small  part  in  the  making 
of  America.  They  were  patriots  and  participated 
in  the  Revolution  of  1775;  they  bore  a  valiant  part 
in  that  great  struggle  for  liberty.  To  their  everlast- 
ing credit,  the  Baptists  gave  the  Tories  no  comfort. 
Their  democratic  principles  as  to  church  polity 
helped  to  make  them  democratic  in  civil  affairs. 

Along  with  their  doctrine  of  democracy  they  have 
laid  great  stress  on  individualism,  personal  respon- 
sibility. Sponsorship  in  religion  is  alien  to  their 
thoughts.  To  his  own  Master  each  one  must  give 
account.  They  have  no  mediator  except  Christ;  di- 
rect approach  through  him  to  God,  the  Father,  is 
the  right  of  every  individual. 

Growing  out  of  these  ideas  is  the  great  doctrine 
of  civil  and  religious  liberty,  freedom  from  the  tyr- 
anny of  kings  and  priests,  the  right  to  worship  God 
according  to  the  dictates  of  one's  own  conscience. 

Possibly  the  greatest  contribution  that  Baptists 
have  made  to  America  is  their  consistent  champion- 
ship and  prevailing  influence  in  securing  religious 
liberty  for  their  great  Eepublic.  For  it  they  have 
paid  fines,  suffered  the  whip's  lash,  and  been  im- 
mured in  prison,  and  these  principles  they  have  not 
claimed  for  themselves  only,  but  for  all  the  people. 

They  have  contended,  not  for  toleration,  but  for 
full  and  unqualified  freedom  of  conscience.  Ban- 
croft, the  great  historian,  said  that  religious  liberty, 

550255 


6  PREFACE 

full  and  free,  was  from  the  first  a  trophy  of  the 
Baptists. 

Other  people,  especially  Presbyterians,  were  in 
the  fight  for  religious  liberty,  but  it  is  a  matter  of 
history  that  the  chief  crown  for  that  victory  should 
be  placed  on  the  Baptist  brow.  This  is  clearly 
proved  by  the  two  admirable  chapters  of  this  volume 
on  the  struggle  for  religious  liberty. 

Baptists  have  made  rather  than  written  history 
and  their  great  part  in  the  making  of  America  has 
not  been  given  due  consideration.  We  are  coming 
to  realize  the  importance  of  setting  down  the  achieve- 
ments of  our  denomination. 

Baptists  have  been  a  great  missionary  people.  In 
a  roll  call  of  the  great  missionary  heroes,  many 
Baptist  names  would  have  to  be  recorded.  Carey 
and  Judson  are  immortal  in  the  foreign  field.  We 
have  men  equally  great  who  have  given  themselves 
to  the  Home  Mission  task.  The  recital  of  our 
triumphs  in  Home  Mission  endeavor  is  as  interesting 
as  romance ;  indeed  much  of  it  in  the  early  days  was 
as  romantic  as  the  work  beyond  the  seas. 

The  present  volume  of  Dr.  Masters  is  an  attempt 
to  give  a  succinct  and  realistic  treatment  of  South- 
ern Baptist  missions.  It  sets  forth  in  admirable 
fashion  the  great  missionary  trend  and  progress  of 
Southern  Baptists.  The  reading  of  this  book  should 
provoke  hundreds  of  our  people  to  a  diligent  study 
of  Southern  Baptist  progress  and  to  a  greater  appre- 
ciation of  the  significant  part  we  have  had  in  the 
making  of  this  great  section  of  our  common  country, 

B.  D.  Gray. 


AUTHOR'S  FOREWORD. 

There  is  no  standard  by  which  to  measure  the 
futiire  except  the  past.  Past  failures  and  successes 
warn  and  instruct  and  the  devotion  and  heroism  of 
those  who  have  gone  before  are  for  our  inspiration. 
Understandingly  to  study  the  past  is  to  gain  wisdom 
and  enthusiasm  to  serve  the  future. 

Belief  in  these  principles  has  given  shape  to  the 
method  of  this  book.  It  is  an  effort  to  present  the 
most  significant  events  in  the  development  as  a  sav- 
ing force  in  the  American  Eepublic  of  a  great  spir- 
itual body.  In  form  and  extent  arranged  to  meet 
the  needs  of  Mission  Study  Classes,  it  seeks  to  tell 
the  story  of  the  saving  impact  on  society  of  the  Bap- 
tists in  the  South  from  the  end  of  the  Colonial  Period 
to  the  present  time.  The  effort  is  also  made  to  in- 
form the  general  reader  and  to  incite  in  those  who 
may  need  it  a  desire  to  study  further  the  history  of 
Southern  Baptists. 

Many  books  have  been  consulted  in  the  prepara- 
tion of  this  work.  No  attempt  will  be  made  here  to 
catalogue  the  sources  of  information.  Wherever  it 
has  seemed  desirable,  the  authority  for  statements  is 
given  in  the  text.  For  the  rest  the  Bibliography  at 
the  close  of  the  book  must  suffice.  A  startling  fact 
confronted  the  author  at  the  outset,  the  fact  that 
there  is  not  in  existence  an  authoritative  history  of 
Southern  Bapists  as  a  body.  Histories  of  the  denom- 
ination in  many  of  the  States  were  available,  though 


8  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

not  in  all.  Of  preeminent  value  is  the  History  of 
Southern  Baptists  East  of  the  Mississippi,  by  Dr.  B. 
F.  Riley,  but  even  this  work  is  limited  in  utility  be- 
cause it  treats  only  one-half  of  the  Southern  Baptist 
territory  and  because  its  able  and  gifted  author  was 
restricted  by  his  publisher  to  a  single  volume  of 
moderate  size,  whereas  several  large  volumes  would 
be  necessary  to  tell  aright  the  story  of  the  Baptists 
of  the  South.  Dr.  Riley  has  also  written  able  his- 
tories of  the  Baptists  in  Alabama  and  in  Texas.  I 
wish  to  record  here  my  deep  sense  of  indebtedness  to 
him  as  the  chief  among  the  sources  of  information 
used  in  this  volume. 

The  idea  of  treating  historically  in  a  Mission 
Study  book  the  Baptist  missionary  impact  in  the 
South  originated  with  the  Corresponding  Secreta- 
ries of  the  State  Boards,  who  in  a  meeting  at  the 
Southern  Baptist  Convention  in  1914  asked  that  the 
author  do  this  work,  that  the  Home  Board  contribute 
so  much  of  his  time  as  might  be  necessary  to  that 
end,  and  that  the  Home  Board  publish  the  book — 
requests  which  the  Board  cheerfully  granted. 

It  is  a  distinction  which  the  author  prizes  highly 
that  he  should  be  entrusted  to  render  this  service 
for  Baptists,  not  only  in  the  name  of  the  great  Home 
Mission  agency  to  which  his  time  belongs,  but  at  the 
instance  of  a  group  of  Baptist  leaders  who  are  most 
highly  esteemed  and  honored,  both  for  their  own 
worth  and  for  the  sake  of  the  almost  immeasurable 
service  they  render  to  Baptists  and  to  society.  As- 
sociated for  many  years  in  different  ways  with 
members  of  this  distinguished  company,  the  author 


AUTHOR'S  FOREWORD  9 

has  from  his  youth  known  them  only  to  .admire  and 
love  them.  His  first  faltering  steps  as  a  neophyte 
preacher  were  guided  by  that  beloved  nestor  of 
State  Secretaries,  Dr.  T.  M.  Bailey,  than  whom 
Southern  Baptists  perhaps  have  not  produced  a 
minister  more  useful  or  faithful,  and  his  second  pas- 
torate was  a  mission  church  under  that  great- 
hearted layman,  William  Ellyson,  Secretary  of  the 
Virginia  Board.  To  be  permitted  to  render  a  ser- 
vice in  which  this  select  group  of  leaders  of  our 
Baptist  body  are  directly  interested  is  a  rare  and 
precious  privilege. 

It  is  also  a  happy  circumstance  which  permits  the 
setting  forth  in  the  same  pages  something  of  the 
work  both  of  the  State  and  Home  Mission  agencies 
of  Southern  Baptists.  In  the  large  the  two  are  only 
different  angles  of  approach  to  the  same  great  en- 
terprise. In  particular  tasks  they  not  seldom  co- 
operate. It  is  well  to  view  as  one  whole  their  im- 
pact upon  life. 

The  author  is  under  obligations  to  many  friends 
for  reading  and  criticizing  the  manuscript  of  the 
volume.  The  Committee  of  State  Secretaries,  Drs. 
J.  W.  Gillon  of  Tennessee,  Livingston  Johnson  of 
North  Carolina,  and  F.  M.  McConnell  of  Texas, 
found  time  in  the  midst  of  exacting  duties  to  read 
the  manuscript  and  contribute  valuable  suggestions. 
A  like  helpful  service  was  rendered  by  Dr.  B.  D. 
Gray,  Corresponding  Secretary  of  the  Home  Mission 
Board,  and  Dr.  L.  E.  Barton,  Chairman  of  the  Pub- 
licity Committee  of  the  Board.  In  addition  to  our 
debt  to  Dr.  B.  F.  Riley  for  historical  material,  he 


10  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

has  graciously  aided  by  his  criticisms  on  the  work. 

We  have  tried  to  make  the  material  concrete  and 
interesting,  but  the  promise  is  here  made  to  the 
student  that  there  are  places  in  the  text  which  will 
require  of  him  some  real  study.  That  will  not  lessen 
his  estimate  of  its  value,  and  the  author  is  filled 
with  the  hope  that  the  rather  novel  material  pre- 
sented for  Mission  Study  use  will  prove  itself  as 
interesting  as  we  are  sure  it  will  be  instructive  to 
many,  especially  our  young  people. 

It  is  often  asserted  that  Southern  Baptists  will 
not  read  their  own  history,  that  they  have  been  too 
busy  making  history  to  read  it.  It  would  be  truer 
to  say  that  they  have  been  most  influentially  busy 
making  history,  but  have  shown  so  small  a  response 
to  those  who  have  written  of  their  past,  that  the 
men  among  us  of  the  requisite  gifts  have  been  dis- 
couraged from  writing.  May  not  the  author  with 
discretion  enter  here  the  plea  that  Southern  Bap- 
tists should  give  more  attention  to  writing  and 
reading  their  history.  Our  religious  body  is  a  living 
organism.  On  its  human  side  it  is  the  sum  total 
effect  of  all  the  experiences  and  forces  which  have 
entered  into  its  making.  It  is  hardly  possible  to 
believe  that  it  may  serve  the  present  and  face  the 
future  with  requisite  wisdom  and  efficiency,  except 
as  our  people  learn  to  plant  their  feet  solidly  on  the 
lessons  of  the  past.  How  shall  they  be  able  to  do 
this  without  knowing  what  manner  of  past  it  was? 

For  Baptists  to  know  of  the  noble  history  of  their 
religious  body  and  the  philosophy  of  its  teachings, 
would  at  the  present  time  be  one  of  the  mightest 


AUTHOR'S  FOREWORD  11 

auxiliary  forces  which  we  could  call  into  play  to 
save  the  weak  from  yielding  to  the  pressure  of  the 
winds  of  strange  doctrine  which  are  seeking  to  blow 
the  unwary  from  their  secure  moorings  to  the  word 
of  God.  For  instance,  when  our  people  clearly  un- 
derstand that  the  greatest  service  Baptists  or  any 
other  Christian  denomination,  ever  rendered  to  so- 
ciety in  America,  was  by  setting  their  faces  like  flint 
against  good  people,  in  order  that  they  might  obey 
God,  it  will  teach  them  by  what  principles  they  ought 
to  pass  upon  the  value  of  the  preachments  of  re- 
ligious liberalists  today.  Not  by  compliance  and 
compromise,  but  by  a  loyalty  to  principle  which  sub- 
jected them  to  imprisonment,  railings,  and  contempt 
did  Baptists  win  religious  liberty  for  Virginia  and 
for  the  whole  nation.  They  won  by  seeking  to  please 
God  rather  than  men,  and  without  consideration  of 
their  own  pleasure  and  worldly  reputation.  Win- 
ning, they  brought  to  the  very  people  who  had  sneer- 
ed at  their  narrowness  and  "bigotry,"  blessings  a 
hundred-fold  more  precious  than  they  could  have 
brought  by  a  cowardly,  amiable  conformity  to  the 
wishes  of  many  highly  reputed  religious  people  of 
that  day.  With  smiles  and  favor  these  prominent 
religionists  would  have  paid  Baptists  for  yielding; 
the  reward  which  they  gave  them  for  their  loyalty  to 
principle  was  bitterness  and  hate. 

The  history  of  this  body  of  Christians  abounds  in 
richness.  It  is  scarcely  conceivable  that  a  Baptist, 
once  he  has  learned  the  lessons  of  our  past,  should 
make  the  blunder  of  trying  to  trim  the  contents  of 
his  faith  down  into  conformity  to  the  wishes  of 


12  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

men,  rather  than  hold  them  strictly  in  obedience  to 
the  requirements  of  God's  revealed  will. 

Throughout  this  book  runs  an  underlying  purpose 
to  try  to  make  Baptists  hungry  to  know  their  his- 
tory, a  purpose  which  is  not  less  real  for  the  fact 
that  it  is  necessarily  subordinated  to  the  exigency 
of  adapting  the  text  to  Mission  Study  require- 
ments. Friends  who  have  aided  the  author  by  crit- 
icisms and  suggestions  have  approved  of  the 
method  pursued,  and  some  have  expressed  the  be- 
lief that  these  pages  will  lead  to  more  reading  of 
our  history.  Dr.  F.  M.  MeConnell,  Superintendent 
of  the  Department  of  Evangelism  in  the  South- 
western Baptist  Theological  Seminary  at  Fort 
Worth,  Texas,  says:  "Your  book  shows  every- 
where outcroppings  of  a  perfect  mine  of  fascinating 
history.  If  others  are  affected  by  it  like  I  was,  they 
will  wish  to  go  down  after  the  great  wealth  of  Bap- 
tist history  in  the  South."    So  may  it  be. 

To  wealthy  laymen  who  long  to  see  the  founda- 
tions of  Zion  stand  secure,  and  to  other  leaders  of 
our  Baptist  people,  honored  for  their  ability  to  dis- 
cern and  for  their  useful  service  to  this  people,  may 
not  an  appeal  be  made  that  they  shall  help  open  the 
way  for  Baptists  of  the  South  to  come  out  from 
under  the  reflection  which  now  rests  upon  them  in 
their  having  no  history  of  their  body?  We  are  a 
great  group,  approaching  3,000,000  members,  with 
nearly  as  many  Negro  Baptists  looking  to  the  whites 
to  hold  up  for  them  the  torch  of  knowledge.  Our 
past  is  rich  in  material  for  our  instruction.  Is  not 
the  time  ripe  that  our  leaders  and  our  men  of  wealth, 


AUTHOR'S  FOREWORD  13 

many  of  whom  are  well  able  to  finance  the  publica- 
tion of  a  historical  work  worthy  of  this  great  re- 
ligious body,  should  open  the  way  for  such  a  work? 
We  have  men  who  are  equipped  with  the  necessary 
gifts  and  knowledge  to  write  such  a  work  and  to 
make  its  rich  teachings  available  for  the  instruction 
of  us  all.  If  we  do  not  honor  our  spiritual  sires  and 
the  forces  which  have  given  Baptists  their  present 
prestige  in  the  South  enough  to  set  down  and 
clarify  the  lessons  of  the  leadership  of  God  through 
all  these  years,  we  need  not  be  surprised  if  other 
people  do  not  do  it  for  us,  nor  that  they  get  wrong 
much  of  that  which  they  do  record.  There  are  dan- 
gers confronting  Baptists  in  our  own  times  which 
would  be  greatly  reduced  if  we  might  have  the  les- 
sons of  our  past  set  before  us  as  a  lamp  to  light  the 
pathway  of  our  ongoing. 
November  1,  1915.  V.  I.  M. 


CONTENTS 

I.    Early  Days  and  Early  Baptists 17 

II.     The  Early  Baptist  Preacher 35 

in.    Baptists  and  Religious  Liberty 53 

rV.     The  Struggle  for  Religious  Liberty 69 

V.    Missionary  Beginnings 97 

VI.     The   Conflict   of  Missions  and  Anti-Mis- 
sions   111 

VII.     Organization  of  State  Boards 131 

VIII.     Mission  "Work  of  Educational  Agencies 147 

IX.    Development  and  Devastation 159 

X.     Partial  Paralysis  and  Recuperation 175 

XI.     Organization  Service  and  Success 187 

XIL     The  Past  and  Future 207 

Suggestions  to  Teachers 232 

Bibliography  233 

Reference  Books  on  Various  Chapters 235 

Appendix  A. 236 


My  country  'tis  of  thee, 

Sweet  land  of  liberty, 

Of  thee  I  sing, 

Land  where  my  fathers  died! 

Land  of  the  pilgrims'  pride. 

From  every  mountain  side. 

Let  freedom  ring! 

My  native  country  thee. 

Land  of  the  noble  free. 

Thy  name  I  love; 

I  love  thy  rocks  and  rills. 

Thy  woods  and  templed  hills. 

My   heart   with   rapture   thrills. 

Like   that  above. 

Let  music  swell  the  breeze. 
And  ring  from  all  the  trees. 
Sweet  freedom's  song; 
Let  mortal  tongues  awake; 
Let  all  that  breathe  partake; 
Let   rocks   their   silence   break. 
The   sound  prolong. 

Our  fathers'  God!  to  thee, 

Author   of  liberty. 

To  thee  we  sing; 

Long  may  our  land  be   bright, 

With  freedom's  holy  light. 

Protect   us   by   thy   might, 

Great  God,  our  King! 

— Samuel  F.  Smith. 


CHAPTER  I. 

EABLY  DAYS  AND  EARLY  BAPTISTS. 

1.  Knowledge  Needed  of  Eaxly  Social  Conditions. 

Baptists  have  had  a  large  part  in  furnishing  for  the 
South  the  moral  and  spiritual  impulses  through 
which  this  section  has  gone  to  its  present  command- 
ing and  beneiScent  position  in  the  nation.  At  the 
same  time  the  Baptist  body  has  in  large  part  been 
a  product  of  the  environment  in  which  it  has  grown 
to  such  strength.  In  the  beginning  of  a  study  of  the 
saving  impact  of  the  denomination  on  society  in  the 
South,  it  is  desirable  to  get  into  our  minds,  not  only 
the  spirit  and  strength  of  the  body  in  the  early  days, 
but  also  a  correct  idea  of  the  general  life  of  the 
people,  which  formed  the  environment  in  which  Bap- 
tists took  hold  and  served. 

2.  One  Hundred  Years  Ago.  The  First  Baptist 
Church  of  Charleston,  South  Carolina,  was  planted 
in  1683 ;  it  was  the  first  in  the  South.  From  then  to 
1815  is  132  years,  yet  we  will  use  the  year  1815  as 
a  base  from  which  to  get  a  view  of  early  social 
conditions  in  the  South  and  to  describe  the  Baptist 
impact  on  Southern  life  in  those  pre-organization 
days.  In  1815  the  Declaration  of  Independence  had 
been  signed  thirty-eight  years  and  the  Constitution 
had  been  framed  twenty-seven  years.  The  Treaty 
of  Ghent,  which  terminated  the  1812  "War  with  Great 
Britain,  had  just  been  signed.    During  the  period  be- 


18  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

tween  the  Revolution  and  this  War  had  been  a  peace 
in  which  the  Americans,  unpracticed  in  national  con- 
sciousness, had  drifted  toward  provincialism  and 
localism.  The  coming  of  the  new  peace  in  1815 
marked  the  beginning  of  the  vigorous  young  man- 
hood of  America  and  an  increase  in  national  con- 
sciousness. We  may  fittingly  use  1815  as  the  point 
from  which  to  take  our  first  survey  of  the  South  and 
the  Baptist  impression  upon  its  life. 

3.  Early  Southern  Population.  The  census  of 
1810  showed  that  there  were  3,492,000  inhabitants  in 
the  South,  a  small  fraction  less  than  one-half  the  total 
population  of  America,  Nearly  all  of  the  Southern 
population  was  in  the  five  older  States  on  the  At- 
lantic Seaboard,  and  in  Kentucky  and  Ten- 
nessee. The  distribution  was  as  follows:  Virginia, 
974,000;  Maryland,  380,000;  North  Carolina,  555,000; 
South  Carolina,  415,000;  Georgia,  252,000;  Ken- 
tucky, 506,000;  Tennessee,  262,000.  Louisiana,  Mis- 
sissippi, Missouri,  and  Arkansas  together  had  only 
137,000,  and  Alabama,  Florida,  Texas,  and  Oklahoma 
were  not  yet  on  the  census  books.  The  slave  popula- 
tion in  the  South  in  1810  was  1,244,000,  slightly  more 
than  one-third  of  the  whole.  The  whites  numbered 
2,148,000.  In  Virginia  and  South  Carolina  the 
blacks  nearly  equalled  the  whites  in  number. 

4.  Race  Stocks.  Far  the  largest  and  most  impor- 
tant contribution  to  the  Southern  population  in  the 
early  days  was  Anglo-Saxon,  and  the  predominance 
of  this  stock,  with  its  passion  for  liberty  and  its 
genius  for  self-government  and  devotion  to  Amer- 
ican tradition  and  ideals,  remains  undiminished  until 


EARLY  DAYS  AND  EARLY  BAPTISTS  19 

today.  In  fact,  in  the  light  of  the  unassimilated  and 
strange  peoples  who  are  now  flocking  to  other  sec- 
tions, the  South 's  Anglo-Saxon  lineage  and  its  de- 
votion to  civil  and  religious  liberty,  are  becoming  at 
once  its  distinction  and  the  basis  of  its  obligation 
to  the  rest  of  the  country.  In  addition  to  the  Anglo- 
Saxon,  the  Germans,  French,  and  Spanish  helped  to 
build  up  the  South  of  the  early  days  and  have  con- 
tributed valuable  strains  to  our  American  stock. 

5.  A  Day  of  Country  Life.  A  hundred  years  ago 
fewer  than  two  percent  of  the  people  of  the  South 
lived  in  towns  of  more  than  10,000.  Baltimore  had 
46,000  inhabitants,  Charleston  27,000  and  New  Or- 
leans  17,000.  The  people  of  the  Old  South  lived  in 
the  country,  and  the  population  per  square  mile, 
including  Negroes,  did  not  average  above  seven. 
Virginia  was  densest,  with  fourteen  per  square  mile. 
These  countrymen  made  their  living  by  tilling  the 
soil.  The  big  planter  was  a  picturesque  personality, 
but  the  consequent  popularity  he  has  enjoyed  in  lit- 
erature has  done  an  injustice  to  the  great  inconspic- 
uous majority  of  Southern  men,  the  hardy  pioneers 
who  subdued  the  forests  and  caused  the  American 
wilderness  to  blossom  with  beauty  and  gladness. 
The  men  of  1815  who  made  the  wealth  of  the  South 
and  set  up  a  stable  government,  were  the  sons  of 
sires  who  had  carried  their  muskets  in  the  Revolu- 
tionary War  and  had  won  Independence.  These 
men  for  the  most  part  worked  with  their  own 
hands  in  the  fields.  Even  the  minority  who  had 
slaves  usually  owned  only  a  few  and  often  worked 
by  the  side  of  the  slaves.    Much  as  the  public  imagi- 


20  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

nation  has  been  titillated  by  the  romantic  morsel  of 
the  feudal  lord  with  his  hundreds  of  slaves  and 
thousands  of  acres,  and  as  loath  as  we  may  feel  to 
break  the  pleasant  spell,  we  shall  not  be  able  to  lay 
a  true  foundation  on  which  to  work  out  the  religious 
history  of  the  South,  without  putting  our  pictur- 
esque planter  into  the  relatively  inconsiderable 
place  which  really  belongs  to  him,  of  having  been 
something  less  than  ten  percent  of  the  white  popu- 
lation of  the  South  in  the  first  half  of  the  Nine- 
teenth Century. 

6.  The  Life  of  the  People.  The  two  characteristic 
things  in  the  lives  of  those  farmers  of  the  early  part 
of  the  last  century  were  loneliness  and  independence. 
The  Southern  Mountaineer  of  today  is  to  some  ex- 
tent living  like  the  average  Southern  farmer  did  in 
1815;  but  with  a  difference.  The  early  farmer  was 
more  remote  from  his  neighbor  than  the  average 
mountaineer  of  today,  but  had  more  land  to  culti- 
vate. The  farmer  home  of  1815  was  sufficient  to  its 
own  needs.  The  grandfather  of  the  writer  in  Pied- 
mont South  Carolina,  Rev.  Bryant  Burriss,  who  was 
a  young  man  in  1815,  was  a  Baptist  preacher,  a 
large  farmer,  a  tanner,  a  brick  mason,  a  cabinet 
maker,  and  a  trial  justice  and  community  peace 
maker.  He  was  a  slave  owner  and  worked  more 
than  any  slave  he  had.  The  rural  community  life 
of  the  South  in  the  first  half  of  the  last  century 
was  rich  in  such  men.  The  social  life  of  the  people 
was  simple..  Quiltings,  tournament  riding,  horse 
racing,  corn  shuckings,  and  house  raisings  brought 
the  people  together.     These  and  the  preaching  ser- 


EARLY  DAYS  AND  EARLY  BAPTISTS  21 

vices  conducted  by  pioneer  preachers  on  the  one 
hand,  and  the  muster  day  of  the  militia  on 
the  other,  made  up  the  social  repertory  of 
the  day.  The  sins  of  the  people  were  those  of 
a  rough  and  primal  life.  At  the  muster  days  drunk- 
ennesss  obtained  and  free-for-all,  "fist-and-skull" 
fighting.  In  the  revival  meetings  the  religious  emo- 
tions showed  themselves  with  similar  force  and  fer- 
vor. The  preachers  found  it  comparatively  easy  to 
get  great  crowds  of  people  to  come  to  hear  the 
gospel,  for  they  were  hungry  for  contact  with  their 
fellows;  and  they  found  them  more  responsive  to 
the  truth,  because  they  were  not  as  universally 
preoccupied  with  the  spell  of  intense  secular 
life  as  they  are  today. 

7.  Home  and  Community.  The  isolation  of  the 
communities  scattered  over  the  South  tended  to 
cultivate  mutual  sympathy  and  good  will  among 
different  classes  of  people  within  each  community. 
Class  consciousness  did  not  grow,  because  members 
of  any  special  class  had  small  opportunity  for  asso- 
ciation with  their  own  kind,  while  they  had  contact 
with  men  of  other  classes.  Community  independ- 
ence and  individualism  developed  together.  The  day 
of  specialism  was  three-quarters  of  a  century  in 
the  future.  The  occupant  of  the  pioneer  home 
had  to  form  his  own  opinions  and  work  out  his  own 
problems.  That  home  was  usually  built  of  logs 
and  contained  from  two  to  six  rooms.  In  later 
years  saw  mills  were  introduced  and  plank  weath- 
erboarded  houses  were  built,  or  else  the  weather- 
boarding  was  fastened  on  over  the  durable  logs 


22  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

of  the  old  building.  Hundreds  of  these  planked- 
over  log  houses  still  stand  in  the  South,  attesting 
the  honesty  of  pioneer  builders,  mementos  still  of 
pioneer  days.  In  the  home  was  the  loom,  the  spin- 
ning wheel,  and  the  great  open  fireplace,  where 
the  brave  pioneer  housewife  superintended  the  cook- 
ing, and  over  the  door  on  pegs  rested  the  trusty 
rifle.  The  house  was  surrounded  by  cleared  fields, 
beyond  which  grew  in  unconquered  grandeur  and 
mystery  the  native  forest.  The  fields  and  forests 
through  agriculture,  cattle  raising,  and  hunting,  sup- 
plied all  the  needs  of  the  family,  except  a  few  such 
items  as  metal  ware,  shoes,  and  tools.  Such  a  family 
could  live  and  not  seldom  did  live  for  months  cut 
off  from  communication  with  the  rest  of  the  world. 
8.  Lack  of  Inter-Communication.  One  hundred 
years  ago  in  America  the  means  of  inter-communica- 
tion were  incomparably  fewer  than  now.  Perhaps  it 
is  not  understating  it  to  say  that  the  means  of  inter- 
communication were  not  more  than  one  per  cent, 
what  they  are  today.  The  railway  came  nearly 
twenty  years  later  and  amounted  to  little  till  forty 
years  later.  The  telegraph  was  unknown.  The 
steamboat  was  just  beginning  to  attract  attention 
as  a  means  of  improving  on  flat  boats  in  the  rivers. 
Travel  beyond  one's  community  was  not  for  many. 
There  was  a  stage  coach  from  Washington  to  New 
Orleans  by  way  of  Columbia  and  Augusta,  and  the 
trip  required  nearly  a  month.  Much  of  the  long 
distance  travel  was  by  sea.  The  rivers  were  used 
for  transporting  freight  to  and  from  the  farmers 
in  their  remote  homes.    The  postage  on  a  letter  was 


EARLY  DAYS  AND  EARLY  BAPTISTS  23 

ten  cents  for  eighty  miles  and  twenty-five  cents  for 
all  distances  above  400  miles.  There  were  few  news- 
papers and  the  rate  on  them  was  relatively  high. 
There  were  few  postoffices  and  bad  roads  were  uni- 
versal, where  there  were  roads  at  all.  Most  of  the 
travel  was  done  on  horseback.  Travel  and  inter- 
communication in  America  one  hundred  years  ago 
were  but  little  advanced  over  their  condition  in  the 
day  when  Abraham  left  Ur  of  the  Chaldees  to  go 
into  the  land  of  Canaan. 

9.  Unity  of  Spirit.  But  society  was  not  so  segre- 
gated or  impermeable  as  to  prevent  democratic 
movements  among  the  people.  The  Church  of  Eng- 
land had  learned  this  lesson  two  scores  of  years  before 
the  date  of  our  review,  when  the  Baptists  and  other 
Dissenters  in  Virginia  had  whipped  her  out  of  the 
last  ditch  of  government  patronage,  and  secured  re- 
ligious liberty.  Ferguson,  the  English  commander, 
had  learned  it  when  in  reply  to  his  high-handed 
threats  among  the  pioneers  in  Western  North  Caro- 
lina and  the  Highland  Counties  of  South  Carolina, 
these  hardy  men  donned  their  powder  horns  and  took 
down  their  rifles  from  the  peg  rack  over  the  door 
and  assembled  1,500  strong  at  King's  Mountain, 
where  they  whipped  Ferguson  and  the  British 
thoroughly  in  one  hour's  fighting.  In  a  blessed  and 
high  sense  the  pioneer  preachers  proved  it,  in  the 
hearty  response  of  the  people  to  the  call  of  the  gos- 
pel, which  these  prophets  of  the  Bible  and  saddle- 
bags carried  to  the  remotest  settlements. 

10.  The  Baptists  in  the  South.  In  1812,  Bene- 
dict in  his  History  of  the  Baptists  says,  there  were 


24  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

100,506  Baptists  in  the  South,  as  follows:  Virginia, 
35,665;  North  Carolina,  12,567;  South  Carolina,  14,- 
735;  Georgia,  11,847;  Kentucky,  22,964;  Tennessee, 
11,325;  Maryland,  697;  Missouri,  192;  Mississippi, 
764 ;  Louisiana,  130.  In  1784  there  were  only  21,559 
in  the  South  and  15,000  of  these  were  in  Virginia, 
where  they  had  thriven  on  persecution  and  developed 
a  blessed  overflow  to  start  Kentucky  in  the  paths  of 
righteousness  and  truth,  as  shown  by  Kentucky's 
record  above.  It  is  difficult  to  get  reliable  statistics 
of  the  other  Christian  bodies  at  that  period,  but 
Gaillard  Hunt  in  Life  in  America  One  Hundred 
Years  Ago,  says  that  the  Baptists  were  probably 
the  most  populous  sect  in  the  whole  country,  and 
nearly  two-thirds  of  the  Baptist  numerical  progress 
in  America  was  in  the  South.  This  progress  seems 
not  to  have  been  marked  until  the  Establishment 
persecution  of  Baptists  in  Virginia.  After  that  Bap- 
tists began  to  grow  and  have  made  remarkable  prog- 
ress ever  since  in  the  South. 

11.  "The  Protracted  Meeting."  Throughout 
their  history,  the  protracted  meeting  has  been  among 
Baptists  in  the  South  an  institution  of  firstrate  im- 
portance. In  fact,  the  early  Baptist  preacher  was 
the  man  and  the  protracted  meeting  the  method 
that  God  used  to  make  the  Baptists  so  great  a  mul- 
titude. The  annual  protracted  meeting  was  an  estab- 
lishment by  which  the  time  of  other  events  was 
reckoned,  and  is  still  reckoned  so  in  many  places. 
Things  happened  three  weeks  before  or  a  month  after 
the  '  *  big  meeting. ' '  The  meetings  were  usually  held  in 
August,  during  the  period  of  comparative  leisure, 


EARLY  DAYS  AND  EARLY  BAPTISTS  25 

after  the  crops  were  "laid  by."  They  continued  for 
one  or  two  weeks  and  consisted  of  a  service  each  fore- 
noon and  one  at '  *  early  candle  light* '  in  the  evening. 
In  these  meetings  the  pastor — if  we  are  to  indicate 
by  that  term  the  pioneer  preacher  in  his  once-a- 
month  or  fewer  regular  visits  to  the  church — was 
nearly  always  assisted  by  one  or  more  visiting 
preachers,  who  did  the  preaching.  During  the  meeting 
the  pastor  went  to  see  the  people,  here  for  dinner  and 
yonder  for  the  night,  the  visiting  preachers  fore- 
gathering with  him  to  enjoy  the  winsome  and  whole- 
hearted hospitality  of  the  people.  It  was  the  only 
visit  made  for  the  whole  year  by  the  preacher  to 
most  of  the  homes,  but  its  infrequency  was  partly 
balanced  by  the  generous  open-heartedness  with 
which  the  visitors  were  taken  into  the  family  circle. 
Prom  these  meetings  came  the  converts  and  church 
members — nearly  all  who  came  at  all.  After  it  was 
over  it  was  once-a-month  preaching  or  less  as  the 
dependence  for  spiritual  instruction  for  another 
twelve  months,  a  period  in  which  some  of  the  weak 
would  fall  and  be  excluded,  until  the  next  pro- 
tracted meeting  with  its  spiritual  warmth  should 
bring  them  back  in  confession  and  repentance.  For 
discipline  throve  in  the  once-a-month  programme, 
though  spiritual  fervor  tended  to  decline.  It  was 
all  simple  in  the  extreme,  but  it  was  basic  and 
practically  universal;  so  much  so  that  the  author 
feels  like  apologizing  for  putting  quotation  marks 
around  expressions  in  this  paragraph  which  are 
much  better  known  in  common  Baptist  parlance 
than  many  of  the  other  phrases  in  this  book. 


26  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

12.  Songs  of  Zion.  Congregational  singing  with- 
out an  instrument  was  prominent  and  potent  in  the 
protracted  meetings.  The  music  was  of  old  hymns, 
such  as  "Come  humble  sinner  in  whose  breast"; 
"Amazing  grace!  how  sweet  the  sound!"  and 
"Show  pity,  Lord;  oh  Lord  forgive;  Let  a  repent- 
ing rebel  live."  They  were  "raised"  by  a  leader, 
often  the  preacher  himself,  and  sung  with  spirit  and 
stately  deliberation  by  the  congregation.  Following 
the  reading,  or  "lining  out"  of  two  lines  of  the 
hymn  by  the  preacher,  a  great  volume  of  vocal 
song  would  respond  with  a  plaintive  antiphonal 
effect.  In  the  music  and  words  of  these  Zion  songs 
our  ancestors  interpreted  the  soul  yearnings  of  com- 
posers whose  hymns  told  in  rhythmic  measure  of 
deep  things,  which  God  had  taught  them  in  trial  and 
suffering.  No  music  of  artists  echoing  through  the 
spaces  of  vaulted  cathedrals  or  famed  churches  ever 
subdued  the  soul  before  its  Maker  and  taught  it 
of  the  majesty  of  the  Unseen  with  more  effect  than 
did  these  hymns  of  the  pioneer  churches.  They 
filled  the  simple  building  with  a  melody  which  angels 
must  have  understood,  a  harmony  which  was  the 
voice  of  supplication  and  hope.  It  echoed  far  out 
into  the  quiet  cathedral  spaces  of  the  forest,  and 
mingled  there  with  birdsong  and  babble  of  brook, 
or  made  a  sublime  symphony  with  moaning  winds 
and  the  thunder-mutterings  of  summer  clouds.  With 
those  old  hymns  much  of  the  popular  music  in  the 
churches  today  is  not  worthy  to  be  compared.  It 
is  said  of  Parker's  great  hymn,  "Show  pity,  Lord," 
that  more  converts  trace  their  surrender  to  God  to 


EARLY  DAYS  AND  EARLY  BAPTISTS  27 

its  influence  than  to  that  of  any  other  hymn  in  ex- 
istence. Compare  with  it,  "  'Tis  the  old  time  relig- 
ion," with  which  some  churches  now  caricature  the 
old  time  religion  in  a  languid  series  of  long-drawn- 
out  vocal  phrases,  repeated  over  and  over  again,  with 
the  variation  of  only  a  single  word,  the  name  of  the 
person,  from  Moses  down  to  Cousin  John,  for  whom 
the  song  says  old  time  religion  is  good  enough.  To 
make  the  comparison  is  to  feel  moved  to  pray  that 
our  own  day  may  have  a  spiritual  apprehension, 
which  shall  demand  the  preservation  and  use  of  the 
great  old  hymns.  Not  a  little  of  the  music  written 
for  use  in  churches  today  discredits  the  spiritual 
perception  of  those  who  use  it.  Some  of  it,  in  a 
rather  pathetic  effort  after  cheerfulness,  has  degene- 
rated into  a  species  of  religious  ragtime.  To  go 
from  its  barren  measures  to  the  old  hymns  through 
which  pioneer  America  plaintively  poured  out  its 
soul  to  God  in  yearning  and  prayer  and  hope,  is 
like  going  from  the  dust  and  jostling  throng  of  a 
wall-confined  city  street  to  the  outlook  of  some 
stately  and  removed  mountain  top.  In  sacred  song 
many  of  us  do  less  well  than  our  fathers  did. 

13.  The  Great  Revival.  Great  increment  came 
to  the  strength  of  the  Baptists  and  Methodists  es- 
pecially, through  a  series  of  religious  revivals,  which 
swept  over  the  country  between  1785  and  1802, 
beginning  in  Virginia.  This  revival  lasted  in  Vir- 
ginia and  neighboring  States  for  six  years  and  ap- 
peared next  in  New  England.  In  1801  it  appeared 
on  the  frontier  in  Kentucky  and  carried  thousands 
into  the  churches.    About  the  same  time  there  was 


28  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

a  great  religious  awakening  in  North  and  South 
Carolina.  The  population  was  rural.  The  people, 
who  flocked  to  these  meetings  often  for  a  distance 
of  fifty  miles  or  more,  came  from  the  quiet  of  lives 
which  read  daily  the  open  book  of  Nature,  but  were 
little  lightened  or  preoccupied  by  contact  with  their 
fellows.  Often  tents  were  erected  about  the  preach- 
ing place  in  the  forest  and  the  people  tabernacled 
as  long  as  the  meetings  continued. 

14.  A  Portrayal  by  an  Eye  Witness.  Dr.  B.  P. 
Riley,  in  Baptists  in  Southern  States,  gives  the 
portrayal  of  an  eye  witness  of  one  of  these  revivals 
near  Paris,  Kentucky,  at  which  twenty  thousand 
people  were  gathered,  as  follows:  "Here  were 
collected  all  elements  calculated  to  effect  the 
imagination.  The  spectacle  presented  at  night  was 
one  of  the  wildest  grandeur.  The  glare  of  the 
blazing  camp  fires  falling  on  a  dense  assemblage 
of  heads  simultaneously  bowed  in  adoration  and 
reflected  back  from  long  ranges  of  tents  upon  every 
side;  hundreds  of  candles  and  lamps  suspended 
among  the,  trees,  together  with  numerous  torches 
flashing  to  and  fro,  throwing  an  uncertain  light 
upon  the  tremulous  foliage  and  giving  an  appearance 
of  dim  and  indefinite  extent  to  the  depth  of  the 
forest;  the  solemn  chanting  of  hymns  swelling  and 
falling  on  the  night  wind;  the  impassioned  exhorta- 
tions; the  earnest  prayers,  the  sobs,  the  shrieks,  or 
shouts,  bursting  from  persons  under  intense  agitation 
of  mind;  the  sudden  spasms,  which  seized  upon 
scores  and  unexpectedly  dashed  them  to  the  ground, 
all  conspired  to  invest  the  scene  with  terrific  in- 


EARLY  DAYS  AND  EARLY  BAPTISTS  29 

terest  and  to  work  up  the  feelings  to  the  highest 
pitch  of  interest." 

15.  Physical  Excitement.  Various  observers  in 
States  and  sections  far  removed  from  each  other 
testify  to  the  remarkable  manifestations  of  physi- 
cal and  emotional  excitement  which  characterized 
them.  Semple  says  of  revivals  in  Virginia  that 
"sometimes  the  floor  of  the  church  would  be  cov- 
ered with  persons  struck  down  under  the  convic- 
tion of  sins.  Sometimes  they  lost  the  use  of  their 
limbs.  Screams,  cries,  groans,  songs,  shouts,  and 
hosannas,  notes  of  grief  and  notes  of  joy,  all  heard 
at  the  same  time,  made  heavenly  confusion,  a  sort 
of  indescribable  concert."  Sometimes  persons  trav- 
eled more  than  one  hundred  miles  to  these  meetings. 
Some  of  the  people  under  the  pressure  of  the  excite- 
ment were  taken  with  convulsions,  called  **the 
jerks,"  others  rolled  on  the  ground,  some  even 
barked  like  dogs.  Capable  observers  of  these  re- 
vivals, including  the  elder  Richard  Furman,  deplored 
the  emotional  excesses,  but  recognized  the  presence 
and  power  of  the  Spirit  of  God  in  the  meetings, 
bringing  many  souls  into  the  Kingdom. 

16.  Denominational  Co-operation.  In  many  of 
these  revivals  the  Methodists,  the  Presbyterians,  and 
the  Baptists  co-operated.  In  not  a  few  instances,  the 
Presbyterians,  who  in  these  latter  days  eschew  re- 
ligious excitement  more  than  most,  were  the  leaders. 
While  there  was  co-operation  because  of  a  common 
concern  for  saving  the  people,  comity  and  tender 
thoughtfulness  for  others  did  not  obtain.  At  some 
meetings  the  Presbyterians  and  Methodists  took  oc- 


80  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

casion  to  celebrate  together  the  Lord's  Supper  dur- 
ing the  meeting,  making  it  necessary  for  the  Bap- 
tists either  to  stultify  their  principles  or  to  seem  un- 
brotherly.  It  is  not  probable  that  the  Baptists  were 
any  more  careful  than  the  others  not  to  offend  their 
brethren  of  other  denominations. 

17.  Religious  Life.  The  religious  life  of  the 
early  Baptist  churches  was  simple  and  sincere.  There 
was  much  fervor  in  the  preaching  and  in  the  re- 
ligious manifestations  of  the  people,  but  there  was 
also  directness,  earnestness,  and  sincerity.  The  emo- 
tional overflow,  which  was  characteristic  of  many, 
was  rather  a  by-product  of  the  lonely  pioneer  envi- 
ronment than  an  indication  of  superficiality.  The 
people  read  the  Bible  and  the  strong  meat  of  diffi- 
cult doctrine  was  as  appetizing  to  them  as  was  the 
enthusiasm  of  the  revival  meeting.  Religion  was  in- 
dividualistic, because  life  was  so.  The  great  boon 
sought  was  the  assurance  of  personal  acceptance 
with  God,  and  the  mandates  of  the  new  life  did 
not  seem  to  them  to  extend  beyond  individual  recti- 
tude and  the  immediate  personal  relationships.  The 
principle  of  missions  lay  dormant  in  the  life  of  those 
churches,  but  it  seldom  had  any  other  manifesta- 
tions than  that  of  evangelism,  in  which  the  early 
Southern  Baptists  have  probably  never  been  sur- 
passed. 

18.  Doctrinal  Conditions.  One  hundred  years 
ago  the  larger  doctrinal  differences  of  our  Baptist 
sires  had  been  settled,  and  the  permanent  articles 
of  faith  had  been  accepted  substantially  as  held  by 
the  body  of  Southern  Baptists  today.    Two  hundred 


EARLY  DAYS  AND  EARLY  BAPTISTS  31 

years  ago  American  Baptists  were  General  and  Par- 
ticular. The  General  Baptists  were  Arminian  and 
the  Particular  Baptists  Calvinistic.  Whitefield's 
preaching  in  America  helped  the  Particular  Bap- 
tists mightily  to  win  the  Arminian  brethren.  By 
the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  the  victory  was 
won.  Then  arose  the  distinctions  Regular  and  Sepa- 
rate Baptists.  The  Regular  Baptists  were  those  who 
adopted  the  Philadelphia  Confession  of  Faith.  The 
Separates  sprang  up  under  the  leadership  of  Shubal 
Stearns.  They  had  more  fervor  than  the  Regular 
Baptists  and  held  that  believers  are  guided  by 
the  immediate  teachings  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  which 
are  in  the  nature  of  inspiration.  They  were  mighty 
as  revivalists  and  did  much  to  bring  Baptist  growth. 
They  opposed  the  Establishment  more  than  the  Regu- 
lars did  in  Virginia.  In  1787  the  two  branches  united 
in  Virginia,  which  they  afterwards  did  everywhere. 
The  Baptists  of  1815  in  the  South,  barring  certain 
minor  sects,  were  everywhere  Regular  Baptists. 

19.  To  Sum  Up.  In  a  population  of  seven  to  the 
square  mile,  practically  all  of  which  was  rural  and 
devoted  to  farming  under  pioneer  conditions,  the 
Baptists  in  the  South  a  hundred  years  ago  had  be- 
come the  largest  religious  body,  with  the  Methodists 
vying  with  them  in  efforts  to  adapt  gospel  preach- 
ing to  pioneer  needs  and  the  Presbyterians  follow- 
ing far  behind  in  numbers,  but  possessing  strength 
and  influence.  The  Baptists  had  a  passion  for  liberty 
and  reverence  for  the  open  Bible.  Usually  their 
preachers  were  not  learned  men,  but  they  had  a 
great  love  for  the  souls  of  perishing  people.    Baptists 


82  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

were  without  any  special  secular  advantage,  and  had 
just  come  out  of  a  century  in  which  they  had  been 
persecuted  and  despised  by  the  proud  ones  of  earth. 
Their  one  strategic  advantage  in  relation  to  their 
civil  environment  was  that  they  were  a  religious 
democracy,  and  sought  to  convert  and  lead  people 
in  the  world's  greatest  civil  democracy.  How  has 
this  religious  body  given  account  of  its  stewardship 
in  the  South  from  that  time  to  the  present?  The 
rest  of  this  book  seeks  to  answer. 

TEST  QUESTIONS  ON  CHAPTER  I. 

1.  For  what  special  reason  should  Baptists  know  the  early 
social  conditions  of  the  South? 

2.  Give  some  significant  facts  of  early  history  as  they  are 
grouped  about  the  year  1815.  Why  is  1815  a  suitable  point 
of  departure  for  our  study? 

3.  Give  the  population  of  the  South  in  1810.  Give  it  also  by 
States. 

4.  What  race  stocks  settled  the  South? 

5.  What  proportion  of  the  population  vras  rural  ?  What  was 
the  density  of  population?  What  was  the  character  of  the 
great  majority  of  the  population?    What  of  the  big  planter? 

6.  Give  two  characteristics  of  the  lives  of  the  pioneer 
farmers.  Give  an  illustration  of  the  versatility  which 
made  the  pioneers  independent.  What  were  the  social 
institutions  of  the  times? 

7.  What  kept  class  consciousness  from  growing?  Describe 
a  pioneer  home. 

8.  What  were  the  means  of  travel?  What  eflFcct  had  this  on 
society?     Tell  of  mail  facilities,  newspapers,  and  roads. 

9.  Give  evidences  that  public  opinion  found  means  of 
forming. 

10.  Give  the  number  of  Baptists  in  the  South  and  in  various 
States  in  1812.  How  did  their  number  compare  with  that 
of  other  religious  bodies? 


EARLY  DAYS  AND  EARLY  BAPTISTS  33 

11.  Of  what  importance  was  the  protracted  meetings  among 
early  Baptists?    Describe  the  meetings. 

12.  Describe  the  music  of  the  early  churches.  Did  they  use 
organs  or  other  instruments?  How  did  the  hymns  they 
used  compare  with  many  now  used?  What  is  said  of  the 
hymn  "Show  pity,  Lord?"  Tell  of  some  barren  types  of 
music  now  in  use. 

13.  Tell  of  the  great  revival. 

14.  Give  the  description  of  a  pioneer  revival  in  Kentucky  by 
an  eye-witness. 

15.  Describe  the  physical  and  emotional  excitement  of  these 
revivals.     Give  an  estimate  of  their  spiritual  worth. 

16.  Tell  of  inter-denominational  co-operation. 

17.  Describe  the  religious  life  of  early  Baptist  churches.  What 
of  the  principle  of  missions? 

18.  Describe  the  doctrinal  conditions.  How  did  General  and 
Particular  Baptists  differ?    Regular  and  Separate? 

19.  Give  a  resume  of  the  chapter. 


Instead  of  blushing,  realizing  who  and  what  our  ancestors 
were,  and  seeing  how  they  are  held  responsible  for  what 
they  could  not  help,  and  for  what  was  really  no  worse  than 
their  enemies  themselves  practiced,  we  should  champion  their 
fame,  defend  them  from  the  aspersions  of  slandering  bigots, 
and  seek  to  gain  for  them  the  admiring  gratitude  of  coming 
generations.  Failing  in  this,  we  show  ourselves  unworthy  to 
be  their  descendants.  I  have  little  patience  with  our  aristo- 
crats who  are  ashamed  of  the  plebeian  fathers  who  made  it 
possible  for  them  to  be  rich  and  courted;  I  have  less  for  those. 
Protestants  who  afTect  so  much  superiority  to  their  Pilgrim 
sires;  and  I  have  none  at  all  for  those  Baptists  who  do  not 
highly  esteem  the  character  and  sacrifices  of  the  men  who 
secured  them  their  high  station  in  the  world.  Contemptible 
children  are  they  who  do  not  magnify  their  parents;  but  I 
trust  the  Baptists  of  the  next  hundred  years  may  not  be 
classed  with  such.  They  should  encourage  the  preparation 
of  biographies  of  their  ancestors,  should  place  before  the 
world  the  records  of  their  lives,  and  should  in  this  way  aim 
to  develop  in  the  churches  something  of  their  Christian 
chivalry  and  heroic  devotion  to  the  truth  of  God. — George  C. 
Lorimer,  D.D. 


THE  EARLY  BAPTIST  PREACHER. 

CHAPTER  II. 

1  A  Horseback  Itinerant.  He  was  a  pioneer 
preacher.  The  population  was  nearly  all  rural  in  a 
comparatively  new  and  untamed  country.  The  infre- 
quent city  preacher  constituted  an  exception,  and 
his  usefulness  beyond  his  own  church  depended  upon 
his  understanding  and  adjusting  himself  to  pioneer 
needs  and  conditions.  To  a  considerable  degree  these 
pioneer  conditions  obtained  in  the  South  up  to  the 
middle  of  the  last  century.  In  sections  of  the  West 
and  in  some  Highland  sections  of  the  Old  South 
territory  they  still  exist.  The  early  Baptist  preacher 
of  the  South  was  a  man  of  saddle  bags,  the  bridle 
path,  and  the  Bible.  He  was  given  to  making  gospel 
itineraries  to  regions  distant  from  his  home,  and 
when  he  did  not  his  round  of  appointments  at 
churches  and  preaching  stations  where  preaching 
was  had  either  once  a  month  or  less  often,  kept 
him  much  in  the  saddle.  In  fact,  these  men  were 
almost  the  only  element  of  society  who  travelled 
from  one  community  to  another  in  those  days.  They 
became  very  influential  in  binding  the  settlements 
together  by  the  ties  of  sympathy  and  understanding. 

2.  The  Wilderness  Wooed  Him.  The  wilderness 
seemed  to  woo  many  of  these  preachers,  for  in  the 
wilderness  dwelled  unsaved  men.  No  settlement  was 
too  remote  or  too  rough  for  them  to  visit.  Some- 
times the  preacher  went   overland   with   the   emi- 


86  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

grants  to  wilds  not  yet  settled,  with  the  purpose  of 
erecting  a  tabernacle  for  God  along  with  the  dwell- 
ings of  newly  cut  logs.  The  unexplored  wilds  to- 
ward and  setting  sun  seemed  to  beckon  these  men 
onward,  and  they  went.  They  cheerfully  faced 
dangers  from  Indians,  swollen  streams,  wild  animals, 
and  lawless  human  prowlers  of  the  trackless  forests. 
In  the  primitive  settlements  they  wrought  with  their 
own  hands  for  a  living  during  the  week,  like  Paul, 
that  they  might  unpaid  teU  their  feUow-pioneers  of 
Christ  on  Saturdays  and  Sundays. 

3.  His  Bible.  Largely  the  early  Baptist  preacher 
was  a  man  of  one  book.     An  influential  but  small 

number  of  them  enjoyed  the  advantages  of  scho- 
lastic and  theological  training.  Not  a  few,  like  the 
elder  Eichard  Purman,  educated  themselves  mainly 
by  a  self-selected  course  of  reading.  But  for  the 
most  part  the  men  whose  preaching  a  century  ago 
made  the  South  so  largely  Baptistic,  had  small 
scholastic  training.  They  were  students  of  the  Bible 
and  in  a  way  which  has  never  been  surpassed  since 
they  knew  how  to  preach  experimental  religion. 
They  were  much  given  to  discussing  Scripture  texts 
among  themselves  and  in  the  family  circles  where 
they  visited.  This  added  a  flavor  of  piquancy  and 
originality  to  their  preaching,  while  at  the  same  time 
it  was  of  immeasurable  value  in  teaching  the  people 
the  word  of  God. 

4.  Was  He  Ignorant?  Ignorant  is  not  the  word 
to  describe  the  Baptist  pioneer  preachers  of  the 
South,  even  when  they  were  unlearned  men.  Men 
who  could  whip  the  shrewd  and  powerful  Established 


THE  EARLY  BAPTIST  PREACHER  37 

Church  in  Virginia,  who  could  go  into  the  wildest 
backwoods  communities,  through  the  gospel  bring 
the  most  unpromising  sinners  to  their  right  minds, 
organize  churches  in  an  orderly  New  Testament 
way,  and  leave  the  community  transformed  into  a 
new  life  and  its  face  turned  toward  the  light  of 
God — such  men  may  have  been  unpolished  and  not 
genteel  in  manner,  and  they  may  not  have  used  cul- 
tivated speech,  but  they  were  not  ignorant.  Some- 
times they  blundered  in  the  interpretation  of  a 
Scripture  passage,  but  they  made  remarkably  few 
blunders  on  what  are  called  the  cardinal  doctrines 
of  grace.  Dr.  James  M.  Pendleton  in  the  Jubilee 
Volume  of  Kentucky  Baptists  tells  of  any  early 
preacher,  who,  preaching  from  the  text,  '  *  Save  your- 
selves from  this  untoward  generation,"  pronounced 
untoward  "untowered,"  and  proceeded  to  demon- 
strate to  his  audience  that  sinners  have  no  tower  of 
refuge  and  that  if  they  would  be  saved  they  must 
flee  from  a  generation  that  has  no  tower.  His  con- 
clusion was  scriptural,  but  not  from  that  text.  Be- 
fore we  smile  let  us  consider  if  some  of  the  fanciful 
interpretations  of  our  day  are  not  as  unwar- 
ranted. He  often  spoke  in  a  rythmical  sing-song 
cadence,  but  the  substance  of  his  speech  was  salva- 
tion by  grace.  The  early  preacher  was  usually  un- 
learned, but  not  ignorant. 

5.  His  Pa,ssion  for  Souls.  The  pioneer  preacher 
had  a  passion  for  preaching,  a  love  for  men's  souls. 
Many  of  them  left  their  homes  and  went  to  distant 
places  to  preach,  when  they  were  sick  and  unable  to 
go.    No  sacrifice  of  their  own  interests  seemed  too 


88  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

great  for  them,  if  there  was  an  appointment  or  a 
special  call  to  preach  at  the  other  end  of  the  wilder- 
ness journey.  Dr.  Riley  says  of  these  soldiers  of 
Christ  in  History  of  Baptists  in  Southern  States: 
"The  early  Baptist  ministry  of  the  South  has  never 
been  excelled  in  its  unquenchable  zeal  in  providing 
the  destitute  with  the  gospel.  Hardy  and  heroic, 
these  primitive  preachers  were  the  advance  guard  of 
Southern  civilization.  *  *  *  They  braved  all 
dangers  and  endured  every  hardship  in  their  de- 
termination to  preach.  Rarer  exhibitions  of  mission- 
ary zeal  were  not  illustrated  even  during  the  Apos- 
t61ic  Age." 

6.  His  Support.  One  of  the  most  remarkable 
things  in  our  early  Baptist  history  is  how  God  raised 
up  a  ministry,  who,  while  they  made  their  living 
with  their  own  hands,  converted  the  South  to  the 
Baptist  faith  in  a  measure  not  equalled  by  any  other 
Christian  body.  Probably  fewer  than  one  Baptist 
preacher  in  fifty  received  a  living  support  from  his 
churches.  Dr.  Pendleton  says  that  when,  even  as 
late  as  1836,  he  was  called  to  the  pastorate  of  a 
church  at  a  salary  of  $400,  it  was  considered  a  won- 
der of  wonders  in  all  that  section  of  Kentucky.  Vir- 
ginia Baptists,  who  did  so  much  for  the  common 
weal,  did  not  make  an  enviable  record  on  pastoral 
support.  Benedict,  writing  in  1813,  quotes  a  Vir- 
ginia minister  as  follows:  "The  support  of  preach- 
ers in  Virginia  is  extremely  precarious.  By  most 
it  is  viewed  as  an  alms.  I  doubt  whether  there  is 
one  who  is  paid  $300,  and  perhaps  not  ten  get  $150. 
Some  of  the  most  popular  and  laborious  preachers 


THE  EARLY  BAPTIST  PREACHER  39 

in  the  State  work  for  a  whole  year  without  receiv- 
ing a  cent."  A  part  of  the  intimate  fireside  talk 
of  the  early  childhood  home  of  the  writer,  was  of 
the  beloved  grandfather-preacher,  who  declared  that 
the  entire  receipts  for  a  year  from  some  of  his 
churches  in  Anderson  and  Pickens  Counties,  South 
Carolina,  would  perhaps  not  more  than  pay  for  the 
shoes  his  horse  wore  out  in  his  trips  to  serve  them. 
The  whole  stipend  from  one  church  for  a  year 
was  a  pair  of  wool  socks,  knit  and  presented  by  a 
good  woman. 

7.  Self-Support.  David  Benedict  in  his  History 
of  the  Baptist  Denomination  gives  a  portrayal  of  the 
"temporal  circumstances"  of  the  Baptist  preachers 
in  1813.  He  says  that  500  Baptist  churches  had 
been  organized  by  that  time  in  territory  which  was 
virgin  wilderness  at  the  close  of  the  Revolution,  and 
that  the  preachers  who  did  it  were  men  for  the  most 
part  who  immigrated  to  the  new  settlements,  took  up 
lands  at  cheap  rates,  cleared  them  and  put  them  in 
cultivation,  and  thus  secured  the  means  of  self- 
support.  At  that  time  he  estimated  that  about 
twenty-five  Baptist  preachers  in  America  were  worth 
$20,000  or  more  in  property,  about  sixty,  $10,000; 
about  four  hundred  and  fifty,  $5,000;  two  hundred 
to  three  hundred,  nothing  at  all,  and  the  rest  some 
amount  less  than  $5,000.  A  comparison  with 
present  conditions  suggests  that  the  early  ministers 
were  persons  of  more  property  than  their  latter- 
day  successors.  If  it  be  desirable  for  a  preacher  to 
be  poor,  and  this  seems  to  be  the  general  opinion, 
yet  the  property  of  the  early  preachers  was  not  to 


40  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

their  discredit.  Driven  to  self-support,  yet  under  the 
divine  impulsion  to  preach,  they  seem  to  have  used 
the  only  large  opportunity  which  has  ever  come 
to  Baptist  preachers  in  this  country  to  show  that 
they  could  beat  the  average  la3Tnan  at  business  and 
yet  give  part  of  their  time  to  looking  after  the 
layman's  soul.  In  the  older  settlements  some  of  the 
preachers  taught  school  or  practiced  medicine  as 
well  as  farmed. 

8.  Causes  of  Non-Support.  Both  the  preachers 
and  the  churches  were  responsible  for  the  former  not 
receiving  a  support  for  their  work.  On  the  preach- 
er 's  side,  was  a  great  dislike  or  even  fear  of  instruct- 
ing the  people  in  their  duty  concerning  this  matter; 
it  was  so  easy  for  prejudiced  and  unjust  persons  to 
attribute  his  instruction  to  worldly  self-interest.  Ac- 
cepting the  situation,  the  preachers  gave  what  time 
was  necessary  to  self-support,  and  the  lack  of  heart- 
wringing  need  on  their  part  made  it  easy 
for  the  church  member  to  keep  his  money  in  his 
pocket.  As  long  as  he  could  hear  a  monthly  sermon, 
the  early  Baptist  did  not  ordinarily  think  more 
preaching  and  pastoral  work  necessary.  As  long  as 
the  preacher  had  to  get  up  only  one  new  sermon  a 
month,  which  he  might  preach  in  half  a  dozen  sepa- 
rate communities,  he  could  look  after  hogs  and  corn 
and  cattle  for  most  of  the  week. 

9.  Reaction  From  the  Establishment.  Covetousness 
is  common  to  every  day,  and  needs  no  elucidation 
here  in  connection  with  the  early  non-support  of  Bap- 
tist preachers.  Those  pioneer  Baptists  were  prob- 
ably not  at  heart  more  covetous  than  their  descend- 


THE  EARLY  BAPTIST  PREACHER  41 

ants  today,  and  they  were  more  hospitable  than 
their  descendants.  Aside  from  lack  of  training,  for 
which  their  preachers  must  take  the  chief  blame, 
there  was  a  particular  reason  why  those  early  for- 
bears held  the  payment  of  preacher  salaries  in  hearty 
dislike.  It  had  not  been  long  since  they  and  their 
fathers  had  been  compelled  to  pay  a  tax  to  keep 
up  the  Episcopal  Church  and  its  pleasure-loving  and 
often  contemptuous  parsons.  Pines  and  imprison- 
ment had  been  their  Baptist  portion  at  the  hands  of 
this  State  Church  party.  The  Baptist  preachers 
themselves  had  led  the  fight  to  do  away  with  this 
unjust  tax  and  also  to  do  away  with  taxation  to  sup- 
port any  church.  In  these  circumstances,  it  was  to 
be  expected  that  the  squeamish  among  the  fathers 
would  look  upon  a  stated  salary  for  a  pastor  as  a 
child  of  the  State  Church  imposition.  They  favored 
free  will  gifts  to  the  pastor  instead,  and  then  mostly 
forgot  to  give  them ! 

10.  Men  Worth  Knowing.  Semple  for  Virginia 
and  Benedict  for  the  whole  country  set  down  in 
their  books  a  century  ago  the  stories  of  a  number  of 
Baptist  preachers,  and  other  writers  and  oral  tradi- 
tion have  helped  to  preserve  for  our  instruction  an 
intimate  view  of  the  men  who  builded  the  founda- 
tions of  our  present  Baptist  life  and  strength.  These 
stories  have  the  spicy  flavor  of  romance  and 
many  times  its  value.  It  is  unfortunate  that  the 
record  of  these  pioneer  heroes  is  not  more  available, 
particularly  for  the  young  people.  Acquaintance 
with  them  cannot  but  do  much  to  inspire,  to  correct 
false  perspective,  and  to  develop  patience  with  and  a 


42  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

comprehending  understanding  of  the  undeveloped 
and  backward  churches  of  our  own  time.  They 
were  leaders  of  men  and  did  more  than  any  other 
class  to  establish  society  in  the  commonwealths  which 
make  up  the  American  nation.  Let  us  take  a  look 
at  just  a  few  of  them. 

11.  Jesse  Mercer.  This  distinguished  early 
Georgia ,  preacher,  after  whom  Mercer  University 
was  named,  was  a  man  of  unusual  parts,  of  whom  Dr. 
Basil  Manly  said :  "In  his  happy  moments  of  preach- 
ing he  would  arouse  and  enchain  the  attention  of 
reflecting  men  beyond  any  minister  I  have  ever 
heard."  But  Jesse  Mercer  was  both  a  self-edu- 
cated man  and  the  pastor  of  far-separated  once-a- 
month  country  churches.  His  biographer  tells  that 
when  a  rain-swollen  stream  interposed  between  him 
and  a  preaching  day  at  one  of  his  churches,  Mercer 
would  strip  the  saddle  from  his  horse,  drive  the  ani- 
mal across  the  torrent,  and  with  saddle  and  saddle 
bags  on  his  back  search  out  for  himself  a  crossing 
place  on  some  log  or  fallen  tree.  Many  churches 
were  dependent  on  his  pastoral  care.  He  saw  clearly 
but  could  not  remedy  the  weakness  of  the  once-a- 
month  system,  and  declared  that  the  churches  could 
never  be  brought  to  matured  strength  under  such 
a  dissipated  pastoral  service.  Would  he  not  be  aston- 
ished if  he  knew  how  little  the  mass  of  the  churches 
have  advanced  beyond  this  inadequate  practice  at 
the  end  of  another  century? 

12.  Shubal  Stearns  and  Elnathan.  Elnathan 
Davis  was  a  young  man  who  was  a  mocker.  Elna- 
than heard  that  the  venerable  Shubal  Steams  would 


THE  EARLY  BAPTIST  PREACHER  43 

baptize  one  John  Stewart  at  Sandy  Creek  Church 
in  North  Carolina  on  certain  day,  late  in  the  eigh- 
teenth century.  Now  this  Steward  was  a  very  large 
man  and  Stearns  was  small.  Elnathan  opined  there 
would  be  much  mocking  diversion  for  him  and  his 
cronies,  if  not  a  drowning.  Therefore,  with  a  dozen 
others  of  his  kind,  he  came  to  laugh  when  Stearns 
came  to  preach.  Elnathan  and  his  boon  companions 
stood  off  on  the  edge  of  the  throng,  awaiting  the 
baptism.  Mr.  Stearns  had  no  sooner  come  among 
the  crowd  than  Elnathan  observed  that  some  of  the 
people  began  to  tremble,  as  if  in  a  fit  of  the  ague. 
Irreverent  Elnathan  began  to  feel  of  and  examine 
them,  to  see  if  they  were  shamming.  Then  one  man 
leaned  on  Elnathan 's  profane  shoulder  and  wept  bit- 
terly. Perceiving  that  this  penitent  had  wet  with 
tears  his  new  white  coat,  Elnathan  pushed  him  off 
and  ran  to  his  comrades,  who  were  sitting  on  a  log. 
"Well,  Elnathan,"  said  one,  "what  do  you  think  of 

these people  ? ' '    Said  Elnathan :  ' '  There  is  a 

trembling  and  crying  spirit  among  them,  but  whether 
it  be  the  spirit  of  God  or  the  devil,  I  don't  know; 
if  it  be  the  devil,  the  devil  go  with  them,  for  I 
will  never  more  venture  myself  among  them."  He 
stood  awhile  in  that  resolution,  but  the  enchantment 
of  Stearns'  voice  and  eye  drew  him  to  the  crowd 
once  more.  He  had  not  been  long  there  before  the 
trembling  seized  him  also.  He  attempted  to  with- 
draw, but  his  strength  failing  and  his  understand- 
ing being  confoimded,  with  many  others  he  sank  to 
the  ground.  When  Elnathan  came  to  himself  he 
found  nothing  in  him  but  dread  and  anxiety,  border- 


44  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

ing  on  horror.  He  continued  this  way  for  some  days 
and  then  found  relief  by  faith  in  Christ.  Immedi- 
ately he  began  to  preach,  raw  as  he  was.  He  moved 
to  South  Carolina  and  was  long  an  honored  pastor 
in  the  Saluda  Association. 

13.  Samuel  Harriss.  About  the  middle  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  at  a  small  house  by  the  side  of 
the  forest-embowered  road  in  Pittsylvania  County, 
Virginia,  two  unassuming  Baptist  preachers,  Joseph 
and  William  Murphy,  were  preaching  the  gospel  of 
salvation  to  the  people  who  had  gathered  from  their 
pioneer  farms.  Along  the  road  journeyed  horse- 
back and  alone  a  man  of  thirty  years,  resplendent  in 
uniform  and  sword.  This  man  was  sheriff  of  the 
county,  warden  of  the  Episcopal  church,  justice  of 
the  peace,  and  county  burgess.  He  was  also  colonel 
of  militia,  captain  of  Fort  Mayo,  and  commissary 
for  fort  and  army.  But  Samuel  Harriss  was  full  of 
a  discontent  he  himself  did  not  understand.  Pressed 
by  his  gloom  and  drawn  by  the  appealing  echoes  of 
sacred  song  from  the  house  where  the  Baptists  held 
their  simple  worship,  Harriss  slipped  quietly  into  the 
house  and  modestly  took  a  back  seat  where  his  mili- 
tary dress  would  not  attract  attention.  But  the  Spirit 
of  God  found  out  the  popular  young  oflBcer  and 
Episcopal  church  warden  that  day.  His  convictions 
became  so  deep,  as  he  listened,  that  he  placed  his 
sword  aside  and  went  to  the  front  to  seek  Christ. 
When  the  congregation  rose  from  prayer.  Col.  Har- 
riss was  observed  still  on  his  knees.  Some  who  went 
to  his  relief  found  him  senseless.  When  he  came 
to  himself  he  smiled,  and  in  an  ecstasy  of  joy,  ex- 


THE  EARLY  BAPTIST  PREACHER  45 

claimed,  "Glory,  glory,  glory!"  He  was  later  bap- 
tized by  Rev.  Daniel  Marshall.  Thus  began  the 
career  of  a  Virginia  Baptist  preacher  than  whom 
perhaps  no  character  in  American  religious  history 
was  ever  more  winsome  and  inspiring.  In  him  was 
the  love  of  a  John,  the  modest  helpfulness  of  a  Bar- 
nabas, and  the  fearlesness  of  a  Paul  confronting  his 
enemies.  He  was  called  the  Baptist  Boagernes  of 
Virginia.  He  became  almost  a  constant  itinerant  as 
a  preacher.  He  preached  to  his  former  political  as- 
sociates and  to  the  court,  which,  now  that  he  was  a 
Baptist  preacher,  had  its  former  favored  officer 
arrested  and  persecuted.  He  was  as  popular  among 
his  brethren  as  he  had  been  among  their  enemies. 
Before  his  death  Virginia  Baptists  came  to  call  him 
the  Apostle  of  Virginia  and  actually  ordained  him 
as  such. 

14.  Richard  Furman.  About  1815,  Richard  Fur- 
man  of  South  Carolina,  was  returning  through 
"Washington  from  Philadelphia,  where  he  had  pre- 
sided over  the  Triennial  Baptist  Convention  as  its 
first  President.  News  of  his  distinction  in  arousing 
Carolina  to  oppose  Cornwallis  in  the  Revolution 
spread  through  official  circles,  and  they  lionized  him 
and  insisted  on  his  preaching  in  the  Congressional 
Hall.  His  diffidence  overruled,  this  man  for  whose 
head  Cornwallis  had  offered  a  thousand  pounds 
found  himself  standing  before  the  elite,  the  honor- 
able, and  the  notable,  the  President,  Cabinet,  Min- 
isters, Foreign  Ambassadors,  etc.  In  the  midst  of 
that  crowded  assembly,  says  the  Christian  Register, 
the  clarion  voice  of  Furman  rang  out,  as  it  had  once 


46  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

done  in  the  camps  of  his  countrymen.  He  seemed  to 
feel  at  home,  as  if  among  his  High  Hills  of  the  Santee, 
where  he  first  put  the  gospel  trumpet  to  his  lips. 
His  text  was  characteristic :  ' '  And  now  why  tamest 
thou?  Arise  and  be  baptized."  He  had  great  lib- 
erty and  riveted  the  attention  of  the  audience.  The 
earnestness  and  candor  with  which  he  rebuked  the 
nobles  and  rulers,  were  enough  like  Nehemiah  of 
old  and  John  the  Baptist  to  startle  his  time-serving, 
conscience-stricken  hearers.  He  paused  in  the  last 
sentence  of  his  peroration  and  surveying  for  an  in- 
stant the  scene  before  him,  as  he  stood  upon  the 
climax  of  his  appeal  and  while  all  was  still  as  the 
grave,  uttered  with  the  utmost  effort  of  his  clear, 
stentorian  voice,  "And  now  why  tarriest  thou? 
Arise  and  be  baptized."  At  the  word  "arise,"  not 
a  few  of  his  august  but  electrified  hearers  did  arise 
from  their  seats,  as  if  alarmed  at  their  past  sinful 
sluggishness. 

15.  Pioneer  Street  Preaching.  It  was  on  a  Sun- 
day in  Nacogdoches,  Texas,  in  1836.  Crudeness  of 
the  frontier  stamped  the  young  town.  Rev.  Z.  N. 
Morrell,  pioneer  preacher,  rode  into  the  place  on  a 
mule,  just  arrived  from  far-away  Tennessee.  An 
election  was  in  progress  and  crowds  thronged  the 
streets.  Morrell  tied  his  mule  in  a  thicket  near  by, 
got  on  his  knees,  and  asked  God  if  he  must  preach 
to  that  crowd,  and  came  out  among  the  people.  He 
got  up  on  the  foundation  timbers  of  a  house,  the 
construction  of  which  had  started,  selected  a  corner 
for  a  pulpit,  held  his  watch  up  high  in  his  hand,  and 
shouted:    "Oh-Yes!    Oh-Yes!    Oh-Yes!    Everybody 


THE  EARLY  BAPTIST  PREACHER  47 

that  wants  to  buy,  without  money  and  without  price, 
come  this  way."  The  motley  throng  closed  in  about 
the  speaker,  and  he  commenced  to  sing  the  old 
hymn,  "Am  I  a  soldier  of  the  cross?"  By  the  time 
the  song  ended  the  whole  population  was  in  the 
crowd.  He  offered  a  prayer  and  sang  another  hymn 
amid  profound  silence.  Astonishment,  rather  than 
reverence,  was  stamped  on  the  red,  white  and  black 
faces  which  looked  up  at  the  preacher.  Across  the 
street  a  second  story  piazza  filled  with  men  and 
women.  Some  covered  wagons  and  a  carriage  bring- 
ing in  immigrants,  drove  up  to  the  edge  of  the  throng 
and  stopped.  In  one  of  the  "schooners"  the  eagle 
eye  of  the  preacher  recognized  a  friend  and  his 
family  from  Hardeman  County,  Tennessee,  three  of 
whose  daughters  he  had  baptized  in  the  old  State. 
Thrilled,  Morrell  took  as  his  text  Isaiah  35 :1  "  The 
wilderness  and  the  solitary  place  shall  be  glad  for 
them ;  and  the  desert  shall  rejoice  and  blossom  as 
the  rose."  Never  had  the  stalwart  man  of  God 
received  better  attention.  He  had  great  liberty  for 
an  hour,  and  the  faces  of  scores  of  the  adventurous 
spirits  there  were  suffused  with  tears,  which  were 
surprised  from  hearts  unaccustomed  in  that  new 
land  to  the  voice  of  love.  When  he  ceased  speaking, 
they  pressed  forward  to  grasp  his  hand.  How  won- 
derfully in  Texas  has  the  prophecy  of  that  text 
been  fulfilled! 

16.  Thrills  of  the  Frontier.  It  was  a  Sunday  night 
preaching  service  in  1842,  at  a  small  school-house, 
four  miles  above  Gonzales.  The  neighboring  Indian 
tribes  were  in  an  ugly  mood  and  had  recently  killed 


48  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

a  number  of  settlers.  As  Elder  Morrell  preached, 
armed  men  stood  guard  outside  in  the  dark  and 
others  sat  at  the  rear  of  the  congregation  with  guns 
across  their  knees.  The  preacher  spoke  with  power, 
the  attention  was  intense,  and  there  were  earnest 
prayers  for  protection  from  the  Indians.  The  con- 
gregation was  dismissed.  Before  the  people  had 
gotten  their  teams  hitched  up,  the  report  of  a  gun- 
shot broke  the  silence,  and  then  a  shrill  Indian 
whistle.  The  people  proceeded  homeward  with  much 
caution  and  in  a  body,  as  most  of  them  lived  in  the 
same  direction.  Elder  Morrell  led  the  silent  pro- 
cession in  his  ox-cart,  in  which  were  his  own  and 
two  other  families.  Other  similar  conveyances  fol- 
lowed. The  silence,  broken  only  by  the  crunching 
wheels  and  the  tugging  beasts,  became  oppressive. 
Some  one  suggested  that  a  song  be  sung  to  drive 
away  the  gloom.  And  then  echoed  out  along  the 
valley  of  the  Gaudalupe  the  plaintive,  rythmic 
notes  of  an  old  song,  which  must  have  touched  even 
the  savage  hearts  of  the  lurking  Indians — 

"On  Jordan's  stormy  banks  I  stand, 

And  cast  a  wishful  eye, 
To  Canaan's  fair  and  happy  land, 

Where  my  possessions  lie. 

"Oh,  sacred  hope;  oh,  blissful  hope, 

By  inspiration  given, 
The  hope,  when  days  and  years  are  passed, 

We  all  shall  meet  in  heaven.' 

"I  then  thought,"  wrote  the  old  veteran,  years 
later,  "and  I  still  think  that  amid  the  solemnities  of 
that  hour  I  heard  music  which  was  sweeter  to  my 


THE  EARLY  BAPTIST  PREACHER  49 

soul  than  any  other  which  ever  fell  upon  my  ears." 
17.  Pioneer  Women.  Even  in  so  brief  and  in- 
adequate a  group  of  illustrations  of  the  work  and 
life  of  those  early-day  preachers,  it  would  be  im- 
proper not  to  utter  a  word  of  appreciation  of  the 
godly  women  who,  either  as  wives  of  the  preachers 
or  as  the  friends  and  helpers  of  their  good  work, 
bore  a  noble  and  influential  part  in  helping  to  Chris- 
tianize the  South.  No  sacrifice  in  loneliness,  priva- 
tion, or  danger  seemed  too  great  for  these  pioneer 
women,  if  by  enduring  they  could  help  forward  the 
cause  of  righteousness.  When  the  preacher  was 
absent  for  weeks,  the  wife  became  both  the  provider 
and  protector  of  the  home.  *'Aunt"  Chloe  Holt  was 
a  noble-hearted  and  daring  woman  who  lived  near 
the  South  Fork  of  Cole 's  Creek  in  Mississippi  in  1795, 
when  Rev.  Richard  Curtis,  a  prominent  early-day 
preacher  in  Mississippi,  was  being  threatened  and 
persecuted  by  the  Roman  Catholic  authorities  at 
Natchez.  Following  the  persistence  of  Curtis  in 
preaching  to  the  Mississippians,  the  persecution  be- 
came so  acute  that  his  life  was  in  jeopardy.  Curtis 
was  hiding  in  the  swamp  and  the  myrmidons  of 
the  hierarchy  were  searching  for  him.  He  was  sorely 
in  need  of  information  about  the  spies  and  of  sup- 
plies for  the  journey  it  had  been  decided  he  should 
make  back  to  South  Carolina.  Not  a  person  could 
be  found  willing  to  go  to  him  with  the  necessary 
supplies,  lest  he  should  fall  under  the  penalty  of 
"aiding  and  abetting"  the  escape  of  the  refugees. 
Aunt  Chloe  dressed  herself  in  men's  clothing,  mount- 
ed a  horse,  went  in  search  of  Curtis,  and  found  him. 


60  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

She  delivered  to  the  preacher  and  his  companions 
the  supplies,  gave  them  her  blessing,  and  returned 
to  her  own  lonely  pioneer  home.  Usually  the  ro- 
mantic element  was  not  so  prominent  in  the  noble 
devotion  of  the  pioneer  women,  but  their  zeal 
was  none  the  less  real  and  potent.  Less  heralded 
than  the  work  of  the  men,  the  pioneer  wives  and 
mothers  bore  equally  with  them  the  hardships  of 
subduing  the  wilderness  and  did  more  than  the 
men  in  setting  up  the  institutions  of  religion  to  safe- 
guard the  home. 

18.  Baptist  Debt  to  Unsalaried  Early  Preachers. 
Baptists  owe  an  immense  debt  to  the  pioneer 
preachers,  who  preached  practically  at  their  own 
charges  with  a  passion  comparable  to  that  of  the 
Apostolic  Age,  who  cheerfully  endured  persecution, 
and  who  found  no  wilderness  path  too  lonely  to 
traverse  and  no  pioneer  settlement  too  crude  or 
remote  for  them  to  serve,  who  led  and  won  the 
battle  for  religious  liberty  in  America,  and  whose 
evangelistic  zeal  has  never  been  excelled.  These  men 
were  paid  in  appreciation  and  the  joy  of  seeing  souls 
born  in  the  early  churches,  but  not  with  money. 
Among  the  descendant  churches  and  preachers  the 
nobility  and  worth  of  these  pioneers  of  the  cross 
have  not  been  fully  realized.  We  have  accorded 
words  of  honor  to  the  pioneer  prophet.  Some  have 
affected  an  air  of  excusatory  apology  for  his 
idiosyncrasies,  but  we  have  not  brought  ourselves 
close  enough  to  him  to  realize  what  a  man  he  was, 
that  he  was  in  very  truth  the  spiritual  father  of  all 
our  denomination  has  and  is  today,  and  that  his  un- 


THE  EARLY  BAPTIST  PREACHER  51 

stinted  spiritual  labors,  out  of  which  this  great  Bap- 
tist body  was  born,  were  performed  at  his  own  costs. 
To  the  noble  part  which  these  preachers  played  in 
bringing  religious  liberty  in  America  the  next 
two  chapters  wiU  be  devoted. 

19.  All  Honor  to  Them.  All  honor  to  these  men. 
I  respectfully  invite  the  hearts  of  all  who  love  the 
true,  the  noble,  and  the  brave  to  consider  these 
pioneer  preachers.  I  especially  summons  Baptists  to 
look  upon  these,  their  spiritual  forbears,  and  to 
chasten  their  hearts  in  the  exercise  of  reflecting  upon 
the  high  moral  worth  of  men,  the  quaintness  and 
provincialism  of  some  of  whom  there  is  danger  that 
the  superficial  in  our  own  relatively  cosmopolitan 
day  shall  foolishly  patronize,  though  they  be  un- 
worthy to  take  off  the  shoes  of  such  men.  Macauley 
said  that  a  people  who  do  not  honor  the  deeds 
of  their  worthy  dead  will  do  nothing  worthy  of  be- 
ing honored  by  their  descendants.  I  affectionately 
invite  our  Baptist  heart,  and  more  especially  the 
hearts  of  our  young  people,  whose  day  of  responsible 
leadership  will  be  one  step  further  removed  than 
ours  from  the  pioneers,  to  ponder  much  the  heroism 
and  moral  worth  of  these  spiritual  forbears.  From 
the  exercise  we  cannot  but  come  back  to  the  tasks 
of  our  own  day  with  added  strength  and  purpose. 
We  cannot  rightly  understand  either  Baptist  Mis- 
sions in  the  South  or  the  Baptist  mission  in  the 
South  tiU  we  understand  them. 

TEST  QUESTIONS  ON  CHAPTER  II. 

1.    Describe  the  early  Baptist  preacher. 


£2  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

2.  Tell  of  his  fondness  for  the  frontier  places. 

3.  What  of  his  education? 

4.  Give  some  evidences  that  he  was  not  ignorant.  Give  an 
illustration  of  his  wrong  interpretation  of  texts. 

5.  What  does  Dr.  Riley  say  of  his  passion  for  souls? 

6.  What  of  his  salary?  What  does  Dr.  Pendleton  say  of  a 
$400  salary  in  Kentucky  in  1836?  Quote  Benedict  on  the 
support  of  early  preachers  in  Virginia.  Tell  of  the  stipend 
of  a  pioneer  preacher  in  South  Carolina. 

7.  Give  an  estimate  of  the  property  owned  by  Baptist  preach- 
ers in  1813.  What  does  this  indicate  as  to  their  business 
ability?     How  does  it  compare  with  their  wealth  now? 

8.  Name  two  causes  of  non-support. 

9.  What  eflFect  on  pastoral  support  had  the  reaction  from  the 
Established   Church? 

10.  Why  were  the  early  preachers  well  worth  knowing? 

11.  Describe  the  work  of  Jesse  Mercer  in  Georgia. 

12.  Tell  the  story  of  Shubal  Stearns  and  Elnathan  Davis. 

13.  Tell  of  the  conversion  of  Samuel  Harriss  in  Virginia. 
What  of  his  value  as  a  preacher? 

14.  Tell  of  Richard  Furman  preaching  before   Congress. 

15.  Tell  of  Z.  N.  Morrell,  of  Tennessee,  preaching  on  the 
streets  of  a  pioneer  Texas  town. 

16.  Tell  of  Elder  Morrell's  night  preaching  in  a  pioneer 
school  house  and  of  the  Indians. 

17.  Tell  of  the  pioneer  women  and  of  Chloe  Holt's  brave 
deed  to  help  Rev.  Richard  Curtis. 

18.  What  is  our  Baptist  debt  to  the  early  preachers?  What 
of  their  dignity  and  worth? 

19.  Why  should  we  honor  their  memory?  What  does  Macau- 
ley  say  about  honoring  the  deeds  of  the  past? 


CHAPTER  in. 
BAPTISTS  AND  RELIGIOUS  LIBERTY. 


In  glancing  backward  at  Baptist  beginnings  in  Virginia,  we 
may  well  gather  inspiration  and  hope  for  the  future.  It  ought 
to  nourish  within  us  a  spirit  of  the  most  vigorous  and 
healthful  optimism.  In  the  days  of  our  fathers  we  beheld 
law  as  trammelled  by  custom  and  fettered  by  ignorance. 
Justice  is  seen  to  have  been  bigoted  and  blind.  Before  her 
statue,  in  the  garb  in  which  our  fathers  knew  her,  we  would 
feel  much  as  Madame  Roland  felt  when,  on  her  way  to  the 
guillotine,  she  cried  out  before  the  statue  of  Liberty,  and 
our  cry  would  be:  "O  Justice!  what  crimes  are  perpetrated 
in  thy   name." 

A  review,  such  as  we  now  make,  is  due  the  cause  of 
historic  justice.  The  writers  of  our  history  have  not  always 
been  candid  and  just  towards  our  Baptist  fathers.  A  work 
widely  used  in  our  public  schools  today  has  this  comment  on 
the  era  of  their  oppression:  "There  was  never  any  active 
religious  persecution  in  Virginia."  Another  eminent  Vir- 
ginia writer  says:  "There  was  no  terror  in  the  law  to  any 
one  who  chose  to  worship  God  in  their  own  way  and  place, 
except  a  trivial  fine  for  being  absent  from  church."  Again 
he  says:  "In  the  history  of  the  vestries  of  the  Episcopal 
Establishment  may  be  fairly  traced  that  religious  liberty 
which   afterwards    developed   itself   in   Virginia." 

Our  venerated  Baptist  fathers,  misunderstood,  maligned, 
and  severaly  dealt  with  in  their  day,  have  been  often  since 
passed  by  in  silence,  and  have  as  often  had  their  motives 
and  actions  misrepresented  or  perverted.  They  sleep  in  their 
neglected  graves,  with  never  a  look  to  give,  a  hand  to  raise, 
or  a  word  to  speak  in  their  own  defence.  It  becomes  us 
who  have  entered  into  their  heritage,  and  sit  beneath  the 
shade  of  the  goodly  tree  planted  by  their  toils  and  watered 
by  their  tears,  to  vindicate  their  precious  memory  and 
perpetuate  in  faithfulness  and  truth  the  story  of  their  deeds 
and   sufferings. — George   W.   Beale,   D.D. 


CHAPTER  ni. 
BAPTISTS  AND  RELIGIOUS  LIBERTY. 

1.  A  Subject  of  Thrilling  Interest.  It  is  pro- 
posed to  present  for  study  an  account  of  the  heroic 
struggle  of  Baptists  for  religious  liberty  in  America. 
Only  a  brief  story  may  here  be  set  forth.  But  no 
subject  treated  in  this  volume  will  better  repay 
a  full  study  by  the  student,  or  fill  him  more  with 
admiration  for  the  consistent  and  unwavering  devo- 
tion of  Baptists  to  the  principle  of  religious  and  civil 
democracy.  It  is  hoped  the  student  may  be  incited 
to  a  fuller  study  of  this  glorious  achievement  of  Bap- 
tists. For  a  suggested  nucleus  of  volumes  bearing 
on  the  subject  the  student  is  referred  to  the  Bibliog- 
raphy. 

2.  Baptists  Were  Revolutionary  Patriots.  Civil 
and  religious  liberty  are  two  applications  of  the 
same  principle.  The  long-drawn-out  persecution  of 
Baptists  and  other  Dissenters  in  the  American  Col- 
onies, had  much  to  do  in  creating  among  the  people 
the  attitude  of  mind  which  resulted  in  their  gather- 
ing to  the  standard  of  Washington  to  throw  off  the 
English  yoke,  from  which  came  the  power  of  both 
civil  and  religious  oppression.  Baptists  had  suffered 
more  than  others  from  religious  persecution 
and  their  consciences  were  offended  in  more  ways. 
At  the  date  of  the  Revolution  they  were  more 
numerous  than  any  other  dissenting  body  in  the 


66  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

South.  The  armies  of  the  Revolution  thronged  with 
Baptists.  "Washington  declared  that,  "Baptist  chap- 
lains were  among  the  most  prominent  and  useful  in 
the  army."  Their  preachers  enlisted  as  private  sol- 
diers along  with  the  laymen,  or,  as  did  Elder  Mc- 
Clanahan  of  Virginia,  raised  companies  of  volun- 
teers and  in  the  war  acted  both  as  commander  and 
chaplain. 

3.  Active  in  Inciting  the  People.  The  Baptist 
preachers  who  stayed  at  home  were  so  active  in 
stirring  up  the  people  to  fight  for  American  Inde- 
pendence, that  they  aroused  the  particular  animosity 
of  the  English  commanders.  Many  of  them  put 
their  lives  in  jeopardy  and  not  a  few  had  to  flee 
from  the  English  wrath.  The  South  Carolina  gov- 
ernment at  Charleston  appointed  a  committee  of 
three  to  visit  the  back  districts  of  the  Colony  to 
arouse  the  people  to  fight  for  America.  Two  of  the 
three  were  Revs.  Oliver  Hart  and  William  Tennant, 
Baptist  preachers,  chosen  for  their  patriotism  and 
known  influence  among  the  people.  It  was  in  the 
same  Colony  that  the  elder  Dr.  Richard  Furman  so 
powerfully  swayed  the  people  by  his  eloquent  calls 
to  patriotism,  as  he  spoke  in  barns  and  on  stumps,  and 
also  in  the  pulpit,  that  Lord  C^rnwallis  offered 
a  reward  of  a  thousand  pounds  for  his  head.  Find- 
ing that  the  Tories  were  on  his  track,  young  Fur- 
man  fled  to  the  American  camp,  which  by  his  pray- 
ers and  eloquent  appeals  he  reassured  and  encour- 
aged so  much  that  Cornwallis  was  reported  to  have 
remarked  that  he  feared  the  prayers  of  that  godly 
young  Baptist  preacher  more  than  the  armies    of 


BAPTISTS    AND  RELIGIOUS  LIBERTY  57 

Sumter  and  Marion.  The  then  aged  Rev.  Daniel 
Marshall  of  North  Carolina,  rendering  a  like  heroic 
service,  was  at  last  arrested  and  placed  under  strong 
guard.  Being  granted  permission  to  speak,  he  so 
overwhelmed  his  enemies  by  his  patriotic  exhor- 
tations and  prayers  that  they  promptly  set  him  free. 
Cathcart  in  Baptist  Encyclopedia  declares  that 
there  was  only  one  Tory  Baptist  preacher  in  the 
whole  of  America. 

4.  Religious  Liberty  not  Indigenous  in  the  Col- 
onies. Many  of  the  early  Colonists  fled  to  America 
to  secure  religious  liberty,  but  it  never  occurred  to 
most  of  them  to  extend  the  same  boon  to  others 
whose  religious  belief  might  differ  from  theirs.  Re- 
ligious liberty  was  of  slow  growth.  It  was  secured 
in  America  only  after  a  long  and  bitter  strife,  in 
which  there  were  numberless  instances  of  persecu- 
tion. The  State  Church,  that  historic  stupid  device 
of  kings  and  nations,  set  up  its  habitat  with  the  new- 
comers to  the  American  wilds.  Experience  had  ap- 
parently not  taught  them  that  a  State  Church  and 
persecution  must  be  twin  brothers  just  so  long  as 
the  conscience  of  man  can  not  be  regulated  by  civil 
statutes.  Massachusetts  had  the  death  penalty  for 
presumptous  Sunday  desecration,  Maryland  for  blas- 
phemy, Connecticut  for  Sunday  breaking,  and  Vir- 
ginia for  persistent  non-church  attendance.  Other 
lesser  punishments  were  provided  to  secure  con- 
formity to  the  State  Church.  Other  Colonies  had 
laws  and  penalties  to  bolster  the  Established  Church, 
but  without  the  death  penalty. 

5.  Roger  Williams.    Roger  Williams,  a  Baptist, 


68  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

who  for  conscience's  sake  was  driven  in  bitter  win- 
ter from  Massachusetts,  found  shelter  among  the 
Indians  in  the  wilderness,  and  established  Rhode 
Island,  the  first  commonwealth  in  the  world  which 
was  built  on  the  principle  of  the  entire  separation 
of  Church  and  State.  Inasmuch  as  this  has  been 
questioned,  for  full  and  conclusive  proof  see  Ameri- 
can State  Papers  on  Sunday  Legislation,  pages 
68-78.  I  cite  a  few  authorities  here.  Benedict's 
History  of  the  Baptists,  page  446:  "Roger  Wil- 
liams justly  claims  the  honor  of  having  been  the 
first  legislator  in  the  world  that  fully  and  effectually 
provided  and  established  absolute  liberty  of  con- 
science." Sidney  S.  Rider's  Soul  Liberty — Rhode 
Island's  Gift  to  the  Nation,  page  85:  "Rhode  Is- 
land was  the  first  commonwealth  in  the  New  World, 
the  first  in  the  world,  to  make  soul  liberty  the  basis 
of  a  Constitution  for  a  State. ' '  Bancroft 's  1888,  last 
revised  edition  of  History  of  the  United  States, 
page  255 :  '  *  Roger  Williams  was  the  first  person  in 
modern  Christendom  to  establish  civil  government 
on  the  doctrine  of  liberty  of  conscience." 

6.  Catholic  Claims.  Known  as  Roman  Cath- 
olicism is  to  all  students  for  its  age-long  opposition 
to  religious  liberty  and  by  the  trail  of  blood  and 
human  woe  which  have  followed  its  false  assump- 
tions down  through  nearly  twenty  centuries,  yet  it 
is  exactly  Roman  Catholicism  which  to-day  chal- 
lenges the  American  people  with  the  assertion  that 
in  Maryland  it  established  the  first  commonwealth 
which  provided  religious  liberty.  Maryland  was 
founded  in  1625;  Rhode  Island  in  1634.    The  facts 


BAPTISTS  AND  RELIGIOUS  LIBERTY  59 

are  that  a  limited  religious  tolerance  was  granted  by 
Maryland  as  a  matter  of  policy ;  while  in  Rhode  Is- 
land religious  liberty  was  the  bed-rock  principle  of 
the  commonwealth.  The  proof  is  that,  (1)  Lord  Bal- 
timore had  to  get  his  charter  from  the  Protestant 
nation  of  England,  and  so  was  compelled  to  provide 
religious  toleration.  (2)  The  majority  of  Mary- 
land's early  settlers  were  evangelicals  and  had  to  be 
placated.  (3)  The  settlement  being  for  economic, 
not  religious,  ends,  could  not  afford  to  drive  away 
non-Catholic  immigrants,  coming  from  other  Colonies. 
(4)  The  Charter  guaranteed  toleration  for  Chris- 
tians, but  not  for  Jews,  Unitarians,  and  others.  (5) 
The  act  of  1649  provided  that  persons  shall  be  pun- 
ished who  utter  "words  of  reproach  concerning  the 
blessed  Virgin  Mary."  (See  American  State  Pa- 
pers on  Sunday  Legislation,  chapter  on  "Maryland 
or  Rhode  Island,  Which?") 

7.  The  Principle  and  the  Conflict.  The  first 
great  enunciation  of  the  principle  of  religious  liberty 
in  America  was  by  Roger  Williams  in  Rhode  Island. 
Its  great  and  epoch-making  conflict  with  religious 
special  privilege  centered  in  Virginia  and  the  leaders 
of  the  opposition  were  the  Baptists.  Other  dissent- 
ing religious  groups,  principally  the  Presbyterians, 
aided.  The  Methodists  were  children,  though  not 
quite  obedient,  of  the  Established  Church;  their 
aid  was  given  to  the  Establishment.  They  were  few ; 
in  1774  there  were  only  2,073  in  America.  (Stevens' 
History  of  Methodism,  p.  168.)  The  Presbyterians 
did  not  aid  the  Baptists  except  for  a  part  of 
the  time,  and  were  hardly  more  than  one-fourth  as 


60  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

numerous  as  the  Baptists  in  the  Old  Dominion,  where 
the  battle  was  chiefly  fought  and  won,  not  only  for 
Virginia  but  for  other  States  and  for  the  nation. 
On  this  point  Dr.  Hawks,  the  Episcopal  church 
historian,  says:  "The  Baptists  were  the  principal 
promoters  of  this  work  [the  effort  to  do  away  with 
taxation  for  church  maintenance]  and  in  truth,  aided 
more  than  any  other  denomination  in  its  accomplish- 
ment." (Episcopal  Church  in  Virginia,  152.)  Again 
this  Episcopal  writer  says :  ' '  Persecution  taught  the 
Baptists  not  to  love  the  Establishment.  In  their 
Association  they  had  calmly  discussed  the  matter 
and  resolved  on  their  course.  In  this  they  were  con- 
sistent to  the  end;  and  the  war  which  they  waged 
against  the  church  was  a  war  of  extermination. 
They  seemed  to  have  known  no  relentings  and  their 
hostility  never  ceased  for  twenty-seven  years." 
(Episcopal  Church  in  Virginia,  137.) 

8.  Not  Laudation,  but  Truth.  It  is  with  no  spirit 
of  glorification,  but  with  a  desire  to  further  the 
cause  of  truth  and  to  appeal  to  the  Baptists  of  to- 
day to  respond  to  the  noble  and  the  true  in  their 
spiritual  sires,  that  this  chapter  is  written.  If  we 
lament  the  tardiness  which  the  spokesmen  of  other 
Christian  bodies  of  America  have  shown  in  giving 
to  Baptists  the  prestige  and  credit  which  justly 
belong  to  them  for  their  brave,  consistent,  and 
epoch-making  conflict  against  ecclesiastical  priv- 
ilege, which  more  than  any  other  cause  determined 
the  result  in  America  of  establishing  religious  lib- 
erty, we  do  it  with  humility,  considering  ourselves 
lest  we  also  be  tempted  to  withhold  due  credit  from 


BAPTISTS  AND  RELIGIOUS  LIBERTY  61 

other  Christian  groups  for  their  service  to  the  com- 
mon welfare.  At  the  same  time,  it  would  be  almost 
criminally  unworthy  of  Baptists  not  to  make  these 
facts  clear  to  their  own  people  and  to  their  children, 
and  to  others  who  are  willing  to  hear  and  fairly  in- 
vestigate the  facts.  It  is  a  heritage  which  chal- 
lenges us  to  devote  our  lives  to  like  high  purposes. 
To  be  indifferent  to  such  a  past  or  wilfully  ignorant 
of  it,  would  be  to  advertise  ourselves  to  right-think- 
ing men  as  decadent  children  of  noble  spiritual  sires. 
9.  Early  Baptists  without  Prestige.  Eeligious 
liberty  was  not  won  for  America  by  men  who  en- 
joyed or  sought  worldly  applause  and  honor.  Ex- 
cept in  the  case  of  Rhode  Island,  Baptists  nowhere 
had  the  prestige  of  founders,  and  in  Rhode  Island 
the  distinction  was  a  fruit  of  the  persecution  of 
Roger  Williams  in  Massachusetts  because  he  con- 
tended for  religious  liberty,  and  he  used  his  position 
as  a  colony  founder  to  establish  freedom  of  con- 
science, instead  of  jacketing  his  own  religious  creed 
by  legislation  on  all  who  should  come.  Early  Bap- 
tists in  America  had  only  their  love  of  liberty,  an 
open  Bible  and  the  fear  of  God  in  their  hearts. 
Many  of  them  had  been  persecuted  in  England;  in 
the  far-extending  American  wilderness  they  were 
impelled  subjectly  to  do  right,  as  they  saw  it,  be- 
cause it  was  right.  Therefore  they  took  up  here 
the  burdens  and  the  glory  of  the  championship  of 
soul  liberty.  Like  the  early  disciples,  they  felt  that 
they  had  to  testify  to  the  things  God  had  revealed 
to  them.  Their  faithfulness  was  rewarded  by  re- 
ligious liberty,  both  for  themselves  and  the  whole 


62  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

nation.  It  is  a  noble  achievement  of  Baptists  that 
they  have  consistently  stood  for  this  principle 
throughout  their  history. 

10.  Despising  the  Shame.  In  order  that  Bap- 
tists might  be  prepared  for  the  great  part  he  had 
for  them  to  perform  in  throwing  off  the  State 
Church  yoke  in  America,  God  permitted  them  to  be 
persecuted  for  righteousness'  sake.  Dr.  B.  F.  Riley 
in  History  of  Baptists  in  the  Southern  States  de- 
clares that  the  Baptist  struggle  for  freedom  in  Vir- 
ginia continued  for  nearly  three-quarters  of  a  cen- 
tury. Quakers  were  the  special  antipathy  in  early 
Colonial  Virginia  of  the  fastidious,  fox-hunting  cav- 
alier, but  the  Quakers  were  not  numerous  enough 
to  keep  his  contempt  busy.  The  Baptists  waxed 
strong  and  were  aggressive;  to  them  the  Establish- 
ment transferred  its  chief  dislike. 

11.  In  Other  Golonies.  Dissenters  were  perse- 
cuted in  other  Colonies  besides  Virginia.  In  North 
Carolina  in  1704  the  General  Assembly  passed  a  law 
disenfranchising  all  Dissenters  from  any  office  of 
trust,  honor,  or  profit.  The  Battle  of  Alamance  in 
1771  was  a  clash  between  the  Establishment-inspired 
civil  authority  on  the  one  hand  and  the  Regulators 
on  the  other.  The  conflict  came  mostly  from  the 
stout  opposition  of  Dissenters  to  the  law  taxing  the 
people  to  support  Episcopal  preachers  and  churches. 
In  South  Carolina,  which  had  grown  up  around  the 
City  of  Charleston,  the  Baptists  protested  against 
similar  unjust  exactions  of  the  Establishment,  but 
at  the  same  time  showed  a  certain  desire  to  placate 
the  Establishment,  of  which  the  State  Church  took 


BAPTISTS  AND  RELIGIOUS  LIBERTY  63 

advantage.  Baptists  amiably  consented  to  allow  the 
government  to  pay  a  stipend  to  a  popular  Episcopal 
rector  in  Charleston,  and  the  greedy  advocates  of 
that  faith  proceeded  to  make  this  concession  the 
basis  of  an  Established  Church  scheme  similar  to 
that  in  Virginia.  Afterwards  these  pretensions  were 
scotched.  Georgia  Baptists  firmly  refused  to  be 
taxed  by  the  civil  authority  to  support  either  the 
Episcopal  or  their  own  churches.  In  the  North  the 
hand  of  persecution  was  also  engaged.  But  the  ir- 
repressible conflict  was  waged  in  Virginia  more 
than  in  all  the  other  Colonies  combined,  and  the 
Baptists  led  the  forces  of  opposition.  Therefore  it 
is  desirable  to  know  the  chief  facts  about  the  Vir- 
ginia developments. 

12.  Persecution.  Persecution,  continuing  through 
many  years,  bound  the  Baptists  together,  purged 
them  of  dross  and  vanity,  and  strengthened  and 
sobered  them  for  the  day  when  they  must  carry 
the  fight  into  the  camp  of  their  adroit  and  vain- 
glorious enemy.  That  persecution  in  1768  headed 
up  into  a  period  of  years  during  which  scores  of 
Baptist  preachers  were  imprisoned  for  preaching 
the  gospel,  and  every  manner  of  contemptuous  out- 
rage perpetrated  upon  them  and  their  meetings.  In 
June,  1768,  John  Waller,  Lewis  Craig,  James  Childs, 
and  others  were  seized  at  a  church  in  Spottsylvania 
County  and  thrown  into  prison  on  the  pretext  that 
they  were  disturbers  of  the  peace.  Among  the 
others  who  at  subsequent  periods  were  thrown  into 
prison  were  William  Webber,  Joseph  Anthony 
James  Greenwood,    Robert   Ware,   William  Lovel, 


64  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

John  Shackleford,  David  Dinsley,  John  Burriss, 
John  Young,  Edward  Herndon,  James  Goodrich, 
Bartholemew  Cheming,  and  John  Picket.  Many 
others  were  imprisoned  whose  names  have  not 
been  placed  on  the  printed  page.  But  they  are 
known  to  God.  The  were  heroes  of  the  cross  of 
Christ.  This  madness  of  State  Church  power  raged 
without  abatement  until  about  1775.  At  that  time 
events  were  shaping  themselves  rapidly  toward  the 
Revolution  and  it  appears  to  have  dawned  upon  the 
minds  of  some  of  the  Establishment  partisans  that 
the  persecuted  majority  must  somehow  be  placated 
if  Virginia  was  to  stand  united  in  the  fight  for  In- 
dependence. 

13.  The  Baptists  Undaunted.  The  Baptists  were 
not  daunted  by  the  bitter  hate  and  derision  of 
their  enemies,  nor  did  the  most  flagrant  acts  of  per- 
secution cause  them  to  hesitate.  At  the  same  time, 
they  did  not  make  the  mistake  of  resenting  the  acts 
of  their  tormentors  in  their  own  evil  spirit.  In 
the  midst  of  their  planning  how  they  might  appeal 
to  the  General  Assembly  for  relief,  they  appointed 
the  first  and  third  Saturdays  in  June,  1774,  as  days 
of  fasting  and  prayer  for  "our  poor  blind  persecu- 
tors and  the  releasement  of  the  brethren."  They 
had  enough  to  embitter  them,  but  were  not  bitter. 
James  Madison,  himself  an  Episcopalian,  but  a  sin- 
cere friend  of  the  Baptists  and  of  religious  liberty, 
wrote  in  1774,  as  follows:  "The  diabolical,  hell- 
conceived  principle  of  persecution  rages  among 
some,  and  to  their  eternal  infamy  be  it  said  the 
clergy  can  furnish  their  quota  of  imps  for  such 


BAPTISTS  AND  RELIGIOUS  LIBERTY  65 

purposes.  There  are  at  this  time  in  the  adjacent 
county  not  less  than  five  or  six  well-meaning  men 
in  close  jail  for  publishing  their  religious  senti- 
ments, which  in  the  main  are  very  orthodox." 

14.  Drawing  First  Blood.  In  1775  the  Baptist 
General  Association  adopted  their  first  formal  ap- 
peal to  the  Virginia  General  Assembly,  praying  that 
the  Established  Church  be  abolished.*  It  was  the 
first  of  many  communications  from  this  body  to  the 
Assembly,  which  were  presented  during  the  next 
quarter  of  a  century,  and  did  not  cease  until  the 
last  vestige  of  special  religious  privilege  was  taken 
from  the  Virginia  Statutes  and  adequate  positive 
pronouncements  for  religious  liberty  substituted 
therefor.  The  Revolution  was  imminent.  The  Vir- 
ginia Baptists  in  courteous  but  plain  speech  let  the 
General  Assembly  know  that  they  were  favorable 
to  any  revolution  by  which  they  could  obtain  free- 
dom of  religion.  Throughout  the  commonwealth 
they  circulated  copies  of  their  petition  for  the  signa- 
tures of  the  people,  and  these  were  signed  by  thou- 
sands of  citizens.  To  a  separate  proposal  of  the  Bap- 
tists that  their  preachers  be  allowed  to  preach  to 
army  troops,  the  Assembly  gave  quick  consent,  not 
allowing  such  preachers,  however,  to  rank  with  the 
regular  Episcopal  chaplains.  That  consent  was  given 
in  August,  1775.  By  the  end  of  another  year  the 
General  Assembly  had  received  additional  light 
from  Baptists  and  other  Dissenters,  The  much- 
signed  petitions  of  the  General  Association  and  the 

'Baptists  had  begun  to  work  openly  for  disestablishment  in  1774. 
(Sample,  p.  43.) 


66  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

pressure  of  other  Dissenters,  along  with  the  im- 
minent war  with  the  mother  country,  created  the 
psychological  climate  which  on  June  12,  1776,  led 
to  the  adoption  of  the  Virginia  Bill  of  Rights. 

15.  Section  16.  Because  of  its  influence  later  on 
other  State  Constitutions  and  upon  the  National 
Constitution,  Section  16  of  the  Bill  of  Rights  should 
be  treasured  by  every  friend  of  religious  liberty.  Its 
text  is:  "That  religion,  or  the  duty  which  we  owe 
to  our  Creator,  and  the  manner  of  discharging  it, 
can  be  directed  only  by  reason  and  conviction,  not 
by  force  and  violence;  and  therefore  all  men  are 
equally  entitled  to  the  free  exercise  of  religion,  ac- 
cording to  the  dictates  of  conscience;  and  that  it  is 
the  natural  duty  of  all  to  practice  Christian  for- 
bearance, love  and  charity  toward  each  other." 
Patrick  Henry  wrote  it  and  had  in  it  the  obnoxious 
word  "tolerance."  James  Madison  revised  it,  cut- 
ting out  the  word.  The  General  Assembly  did  not 
get  those  principles  from  their  State  Church  preach- 
ers; they  got  them  mainly  from  Virginia  Baptists, 
who  had  waxed  so  strong  under  persecution  that 
their  righteous  demands  could  not  be  ignored  any 
longer,  except  at  a  peril  to  the  Colony  which  Vir- 
ginia's great  statesmen  could  not  contemplate.  The 
liberty  of  conscience  pronouncement  was  followed 
in  October  of  the  same  year  by  an  Act  which  re- 
lieved Dissenters  from  the  payment  of  taxes  to  the 
Established  Church. 

16.  Another  Chapter.  This  chapter  has  given  a 
brief  outline  of  the  work  of  Baptists  for  religious 
liberty   in  Virginia,     It   has   claimed  primacy  for 


BAPTISTS  AND  RELIGIOUS  LIBERTY  67 

Baptists  in  that  monumental  struggle.  It  has  come 
to  pass  that  this  primacy  is  being  questioned  in  the 
interest  of  alleged  superior  services  rendered  by 
others.  The  question  at  stake  is;  of  such  great  im» 
portance  that  it  has  been  determined  to  devote  a 
second  chapter  to  a  somewhat  closer  examination 
of  the  factors  which  entered  into  that  fight  for  re- 
ligious freedom.  If  Baptists  do  not  deserve  to  claim 
first  place  in  that  most  patriotic  movement  for  re- 
ligious liberty,  they  should  quit  doing  so.  If  they 
do  deserve  the  first  place,  they  ought  to  know  it 
beyond  a  peradventure.  It  would  be  unworthy  of 
them  to  let  their  distinguished  performances  in  this 
the  greatest  of  all  services  a  Christian  body  ever 
rendered  the  life  of  the  Republic  to  be  taken  away 
from  them  by  sheer  force  of  unchallenged  adverse 
reiteration. 

TEST  QUESTIONS  ON  CHAPTER  III. 

1.  What  estimate  is  given  of  the  value  of  a  knowledge  of 
the  forces  which  brought  religious  liberty? 

2.  What  is  the  relation  of  civil  and  religious  liberty?  How 
did  the  persecution  of  Baptists  tend  to  bring  civil  liberty? 
Give  the  record  of  Baptists  in  the  Revolution. 

3.  Tell  of  the  activity  of  Baptist  preachers  in  inciting  the 
people  to  throw  off  English  rule.  What  did  Richard  Fur- 
man  do?    Tell  of  Daniel  Marshall's  zeal. 

4.  Was  there  religious  liberty  in  the  Colonies  at  first?  Tell 
of  penalties  of  the  law  in  different  Colonies  for  religious 
infractions. 

5.  Tell  of  Roger  Williams.  Quote  authorities  which  testify 
to  his  primacy  in  establishing  separation  of  Church  and 
State. 

6.  Tell  of  Roman  Catholic  claims  of  primacy.  Give  proofs 
that  their  claims  are  not  tenable. 


68  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

7.  Where  was  the  great  conflict  for  religious  liberty  fought 
out  for  America?  Who  led  it?  Quote  what  an  Episcopal 
historian  says  of  the  Baptist  primacy. 

8.  Why  ought  Baptists  to  know  the  facts  about  this  conflict? 

9.  What  of  the  lack  of  prestige  of  early  Baptists?  What 
assets  had  they  for  leading  the  fight? 

10.  What  did  God  do  with  Baptists  to  fit  them  to  lead  the 
conflict  ? 

11.  Tell  of  situation  in  the  other  Colonies. 

12.  When  was  the  period  of  open  persecution  in  Virginia? 
Name  some  of  the  Baptist  ministers  imprisoned  for  preach- 
ing the  gospel.     When  did  the  madness  of  open  persecu- 
tion begin  to  abate,  and  why? 

13.  Did  the  Baptists  quail  before  contempt?  Tell  of  the  days 
of  fasting  and  prayer  they  appointed.  What  did  James 
Madison  say  of  the  persecution? 

14.  What  appeals  to  the  State  Legislature  did  Virginia  Baptist 
General  Association  adopt  in  1775? 

15.  What  is  Section  16  of  the  Virginia  Bill  of  Rights?  Where 
did  the  Virginia  Assembly  get  its  knowledge  of  these 
principles? 

16.  Why  is  a  second  chapter  to  be  devoted  to  this  subject? 


CHAPTER  IV. 
THE  STRUGGLE  FOE  RELIGIOUS  LIBERTY. 


Of  Baptists  it  may  be  truly  said  that  they  entered  the 
conflict  in  the  New  World  with  a  clear  and  consistent  record 
on  the  subject  of  soul  liberty.  Freedom  of  conscience  had 
ever  been  one  of  their  fundamental  tenets.  John  Locke,  in 
his  essay  on  Toleration  says:  "The  Baptists  were  the  first 
and  only  propounders  of  absolute  liberty,  just  and  true 
liberty,  equal  and  impartial  liberty."  And  the  great  Ameri- 
can historian,  Bancroft,  says:  "Freedom  of  conscience,  un- 
limited freedom  of  mind  was  from  the  first  a  trophy  of 
Baptists."     Vol   II,  pages   66,   67. 

The  history  of  the  other  denominations  shows  that,  in 
the  Old  World,  at  least,  they  were  not  in  sympathy  with 
the  Baptist  doctrine  of  soul  liberty,  but  in  favor  of  union 
of  Church  and  State,  and  using  the  civil  power  to  compel 
conformity  to  the  established  church.  While  the  Revolution 
of  1688  marked  an  epoch  in  English  history,  and  led  to  the 
passage  of  the  Toleration  Act  in  1689,  it  did  not  secure 
religious  liberty  to  His  Majesty's  subjects.  As  Dr.  Foote 
(page  5)  says:  "The  Protestant  religion  was  established  as 
the  religion  of  the  State — in  England,  under  the  form  of 
prelacy;   in  Scotland  of  presbytery." — Charles   F.   James,   D.D. 


CHAPTER  rV. 
THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  RELIGIOUS  LIBERTY. 

1.  An  Honor  Worth  Claiming.  It  is  to  the  credit 
of  various  religious  bodies  that  they  should  covet 
the  honor  of  having  achieved  so  great  a  boon  for 
mankind  as  religious  liberty.  It  is  proper  that  each 
religious  group  should  be  at  pains  to  show  what 
part  it  had  in  bringing  separation  of  Church  and 
State  in  America.  A  denomination  of  Christians 
which  contributed  substantially  to  the  result  is 
worthy  of  honor.  It  is  the  contention  of  this  chap- 
ter and  the  one  preceding  that  the  Baptists  did 
more  to  bring  the  result  than  any  other  Christian 
body,  and  that  they  were  the  only  religious  group 
which  consistently  and  always  and  at  all  costs  stood 
for  religious  liberty.  It  is  contended  that  they  suf- 
fered more,  were  more  hated  and  persecuted  for 
their  consistent  opposition,  did  more  to  assure  the 
masses  of  the  people,  and  knew  no  wavering  and 
turning  when  their  own  self-interest  was  appealed 
to,  and  that  they  never  let  up  on  the  Establishment 
till  it  was  utterly  extirpated.  The  writer  is  a  Bap- 
tist and  is  writing  principally  for  Baptists,  but 
hopes  to  set  forth  the  facts  with  due  regard  to 
others.  It  is  not  his  desire  to  claim  for  the  Baptists 
any  credit  which  belongs  to  another  Christian 
group,  but  to  set  forth  the  facts  for  Baptists  and 
for  others  who  are  willing  to  read  and  to  follow 


72  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

their  reading  by  a  conscientious  investigation  of 
original  sources.  If  we  can  win  the  attention  of 
the  student  to  these  original  sources,  we  shall  be 
abundantly  satisfied. 

2.  A  Belated  Zeal.  A  zeal  to  magnify  the  part 
which  they  had  in  bringing  religious  liberty  in 
America  has  been  recently  manifested  for  some  re- 
ligious groups  by  certain  writers,  which  is  much 
beyond  the  zeal  for  the  principle  shown  by  them 
when  the  conflict  was  actually  being  waged.  In 
Volume  X  of  the  South  in  the  Building  of  the  Na- 
tion, a  work  which  contains  many  contributions  of 
value,  the  article  on  "Religious  Liberty  in  the 
South"  is  by  Dr.  Thomas  Gary  Johnson,  Professor 
of  Ecclesiastical  History  in  Union  Theological  Sem- 
inary, Richmond,  Virginia.  The  book  purports  to 
be  non-sectarian  and  the  article  to  tell  the  unbiased 
story  of  how  religious  liberty  was  obtained  in  Vir- 
ginia (where  the  conflict  was  really  decided).  Yet 
this  article  (pp.  465-482)  devotes  five  large  pages 
to  the  story  of  how  two  worthy  Presbyterian  min- 
isters in  Virginia,  about  a  half  century  before  the 
war  for  religious  liberty  was  waged,  labored  to 
secure  from  the  Establishment  a  larger  toleration. 
Then  less  than  one  page  is  accorded  to  a  very  mild 
statement  of  the  part  Virginia  Baptists  had  in  put- 
ting down  the  Establishment,  while  the  great  con- 
test was  really  transpiring.  This  is  followed  by  ten 
pages  in  which  Presbyterians  are  made  to  rank  not 
less  than  seventy-five  per  cent,  and  Baptists  not 
more  than  twenty-five  per  cent,  in  the  activities 
which  established  freedom  of  religion.     The  promi- 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  RELIGIOUS  LIBERTY    73 

nence  of  the  publication  and  the  author  of  the  article 
have  led  to  its  being  singled  out  here.  The  student 
is  asked  to  look  up  the  article  and  read  it. 

3.  Public  Service  of  Presbyterians.  The  Presby- 
terians comprise  not  a  few  of  the  best  people  in  the 
land.  The  writer  is  privileged  to  claim  as  personal 
friends  honored  members  of  the  Presbyterian  body. 
It  would  be  a  source  of  much  regret  if  in  trying  to 
hold  for  Baptists  that  which  justly  belongs  to  them, 
he  should  unwittingly  offend  any  member  of  this 
Christian  body,  which  can  point  to  many  great 
things  it  has  done  in  America  for  the  general  weal, 
including  its  furnishing  for  the  nation  our  present 
great  President.  But  so  distinguished  a  Christian 
group  must  certainly  be  generous  enough  to  rest 
upon  the  honors  which  it  has  rightfully  won  in 
public  service,  and  not  seek  to  wrest  from  others 
that  which  unbiased  history  will  assuredly  bestow 
upon  them.  Therefore  we  cannot  but  believe  that 
the  distinguished  writer  in  the  South  in  the  Build- 
ing of  the  Nation  misrepresents  the  better  spirit  of 
the  Presbyterians,  when  he  seeks  in  favor  of  his 
own  religious  body  to  put  into  eclipse  so  well 
proven  a  thing  as  the  Baptist  primacy  in  bringing 
religious  liberty  in  Virginia  and  in  America.  Bap- 
tists have  done  much  for  the  public  weal,  but  not 
so  much  that  they  can  afford  without  protest  to 
allow  others  to  take  from  them  the  credit  for  the 
greatest  single  service  they  or  any  other  religious 
group  ever  rendered  to  society  in  the  Republic.  If 
they  did,  it  would  be  unworthy  of  them.  Their  own 
children  would  discredit  the  worth  and  heroism  of 


74  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

the  noblest  deeds  of  their  spiritual  sires.  There- 
fore, if  we  fall  somewhat  into  controversy  here,  it 
will  be  because  we  are  driven  to  it. 

4.  Presbyterians  once  State  Church  Advocates. 
The  Presbyterians  in  early  Virginia  and  other  Col- 
onies came  chiefly  from  Scotland  and  England.  In 
Scotland  Presbyterianism  was  the  State  Church. 
Cramp's  History,  page  308,  gives  the  following  ex- 
cerpt from  a  letter  written  in  1645  by  the  President 
of  the  Scotch  Parliament  to  the  English  Parliament : 
"The  Parliament  of  this  kingdom  is  persuaded  that 
the  piety  and  wisdom  of  the  honorable  houses  will 
never  admit  toleration  of  any  sects  or  schisms 
contrary  to  our  Solemn  League  and  Cove- 
nant." The  Westminster  Confession  declared  that 
sectarian  advocates  "may  be  lawfully  called  to  ac- 
count and  proceeded  against  by  the  censures  of 
the  church  and  by  the  power  of  the  civil  magis- 
trate." Bishop  McTyeire  (Methodist)  in  History 
of  Methodism,  page  25,  says  of  the  times  just  after 
Charles  I  was  executed  in  England:  "The  House 
of  Commons  was  now  the  Government,  the  Presby- 
terians were  paramount  in  it,  and  proceeded  to  re- 
model the  church  on  the  plan  of  Westminster  Abbey. 
It  was  ordered  that  the  Solemn  League  and  Cove- 
nant should  be  taken  by  all  persons  above  the  age 
of  eighteen;  and,  as  this  instrument  bound  all  who 
received  it  to  endeavor  to  extirpate  Episcopal 
Church  government,  its  enforcement  led  to  the  ejec- 
tion of  1,600  clergymen  from  their  livings,.  Those 
who  had  [while  the  reins  were  held  by  the  Episco- 
palians]  pleaded  so  earnestly  for  liberty    of    con- 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  RELIGIOUS  LIBERTY      75 

science,  and  who  had  deprecated  the  interference  of 
the  civil  powers  in  matters  purely  religious,  now 
that  they  were  at  the  helm,  were  of  another  mind." 
This  shows  that  the  Presbyterians  had  come  from 
an  atmosphere  of  State  Church  dominance,  and  had 
been  both  upon  the  upper  and  nether  sides  of  the 
miUstone,  without  hitherto  having  learned  to  dislike 
the  upper  side. 

5.  Early  Acts  in  the  Struggle.  In  Virginia  the 
Presbyterians  found  their  old  compatriots  of  the 
Established  Church  in  full  possession,  with  all  the 
special  religious  prerogatives  they  could  think  of 
safely  corralled  behind  a  high  fence  of  legislation, 
reinforced  by  the  barbed-wire  obstruction  of 
contempt  and  persecution  for  Dissenters.  In  these 
circumstances,  in  which  another  religious  group  en- 
joyed the  pap  and  prerogative  of  government  patron- 
age, they  found  it  easier  to  believe  in  religious  free- 
dom, as  any  other  religious  group  would  have  done 
which  had  held  to  the  fallacious  State  Church  idea. 
They  sought  to  get  what  privileges  they  could  under 
the  English  Act  of  Toleration,  and  in  1774,  when  the 
Baptists  were  beginning  to  stir  Virginia  from  centre 
to  circumference,  agitating  for  the  complete  over- 
throw of  the  Establishment,  Hanover  Presbytery 
sent  up  an  appeal  to  the  Virginia  General  Assembly 
objecting  to  a  new  Toleration  Act  which  was  then 
before  that  body,  and  asking  for  equal  liberties 
with  their  feUow  subjects,  which  in  the  end  meant 
no  more  than  an  enlarged  toleration.  In  fact,  from 
their  own  records  it  may  be  shown  that  Presby- 
terians did  not  go  beyond  a  request  for  religious 


76  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

toleration  until  the  Virginia  State  Government  was 
established.  C.  F.  James,  in  Struggle  for  Religious 
Liberty  in  Virginia,  names  seven  Baptist  petitions 
which  had,  before  the  Hanover  petition,  been  sent 
up  to  the  Assembly  between  1770  and  1774,  in  which 
they  were  driving  toward  nothing  less  than  com- 
plete religious  liberty.  Yet  the  Central  Presbyterian 
of  May  16,  1888,  is  quoted  by  James  as  declaring 
that  in  the  Hanover  petition  "the  Presbyterians 
anticipated  the  Baptists  in  their  memorials  asking 
for  religious  liberty."  In  a  careful  survey  Dr. 
James  demonstrates  that  the  Hanover  petition  did 
not  ask  for  religious  liberty  at  all,  but  only  for  that 
larger  measure  of  toleration  which  was  provided  by 
the  original  English  Act  of  Toleration,  instead  of 
the  less  measure  of  liberty  intended  to  be  provided 
by  the  Toleration  Act  then  before  the  General  As- 
sembly. (See  Struggle  for  Religious  Liberty  in 
Virginia,  pp.  32-47  et  alii.) 

6.  The  Stamp  Act.  Dr.  Johnson  in  the  article 
already  referred  to  says  that  Patrick  Henry  se- 
cured the  adoption  of  the  Stamp  Act  in  1765  in  the 
Virginia  Assembly,  "which  made  the  Revolutionary 
"War  inevitable,  by  the  aid  of  the  upper  counties, 
Scotch-Irish  and  Huguenot  Dissenters — chiefly  Pres- 
byterians." We  rejoice  in  all  those  Scotch-Irish 
Presbyterians  did  at  that  juncture,  but  it  is  mis- 
leading not  to  tell  the  whole  story,  which  throws 
quite  another  light  on  the  incident.  The  Stamp  Act 
was  passed  in  1765  by  but  a  single  vote.  The  next 
day  the  men  who  voted  for  it  became  alarmed  and 
actually     expunged   it    from    the    House    Journal. 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  RELIGIOUS  LIBERTY      77 

(Howison's  History  of  Virginia,  p.  52,  and  Cath- 
cart,  p.  975.)  In  1776,  eleven  years  later,  Virginia 
■withdrew  from  English  rule  on  the  ground  which 
she  had  taken  by  a  majority  of  one  in  1765,  and 
from  which  she  shamefully  withdrew  the  next  day. 
What  made  the  great  change  in  Virginia? 

7.  A  Baptist  Victory.  "  In  1774, "  says  Howison, 
"the  Baptists  increased  on  every  side.  If  one 
preacher  was  imprisoned,  ten  arose  to  take  hi^ 
place;  if  one  congregation  was  dispersed,  a  larger 
assembled  on  the  next  opportunity."  Semple  also 
testified  to  the  rapid  spread  of  the  Baptist  faith  at 
this  time.  Dr.  S.  L.  Morris,  Secretary  of  the  South- 
ern Presbyterian  Home  Mission  Board,  in  his  book, 
At  Our  Doors,  page  16,  says  that  in  1789  there  were 
only  20,000  Presbyterians  in  the  whole  of  the  United 
States.  There  were,  in  1789,  18,830  Baptists  in 
Virginia  alone,  (Cathcart's  Baptist  Encyclopedia, 
p.  1324)  with  probably  100,000  persons  who  were 
of  the  Baptist  opinion.  If  one-fourth  of  all  the 
Presbyterians  were  in  Virginia  alone,  there  were 
almost  four  times  as  many  Baptists  there  as  Pres- 
bjrterians.  The  disparity  in  numbers  was  probably 
not  greater  than  the  difference  in  the  principles 
which  actuated,  on  the  one  hand  that  religious  body 
which  for  generations  had  accepted  the  State 
Church  principle,  and  on  the  other  the  body  which 
had  everywhere  and  always  at  all  costs  stood  for 
absolute  freedom  of  conscience  and  for  the  separa- 
tion of  Church  and  State.  It  was  because  of  the 
marvelous  growth  and  the  tenacity  of  purpose 
in  Virginia  of  the  Baptists,  that  the  Stamp  Act  prin- 


78  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

ciple,  which  had  shone  for  a  moment  in  1765,  and 
then  raced  back  behind  the  clouds,  came  out  into 
a  clear  sky  in  1776,  there  to  shine  with  splendor 
and  blessing  through  all  future  years. 

8.  Ask  that  Establishment  Be  Overthrown.  In 
1774  the  Baptist  General  Assembly  began  to  make 
their  demands  that  the  Establishment  should  be 
uprooted.  Presbyterians  never  made  any  such  de- 
mands until  after  the  republican  government  was 
established  in  1776,  when  the  victory  was  practically 
won.  On  page  forty-three  of  his  History  of.  Vir- 
ginia Baptists,  Semple  says:  **So  favorable  did 
their  prospects  appear  that,  toward  the  close  of 
the  year  1774  they  began  to  entertain  serious  hopes, 
not  only  of  obtaining  liberty  of  conscience,  but  of 
actually  overturning  the  church  establishment,  from 
whence  all  their  oppression  had  arisen.  Petitions 
for  this  purpose  were  accordingly  drawn  and  cir- 
culated with  great  industry.  Vast  numbers  readily, 
and  indeed  eagerly,  subscribed  to  them."  These  pe- 
titions, prepared  and  circulated  among  the  people 
by  Baptists,  did  not  usually  pose  as  Baptist  peti- 
tions. The  Baptists  educated  the  people  concerning 
the  situation  and  made  common  cause  with  them. 
This  explains  in  part  why  in  several  books  much 
space  is  given  to  certain  Presbyterian  petitions, 
while  more  significant  Baptist  activities  are  rele- 
gated to  a  foot-note  or  altogether  ignored.  On  page 
eighty-four  Semple  says  that  in  1775  the  Baptists 
again  openly  took  counsel  together  about  how  to 
put  down  the  Establishment.  The  General  Asso- 
ciation, which  some  years  before  had  divided  into 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  RELIGIOUS  LIBERTY      79 

two  sections,  held  a  united  meeting  in  order  "to 
strive  together  for  the  abolishing  of  the  hierarchy." 
Again  they  drew  up  petitions  to  this  end  for  the 
people  to  sign,  with  a  view  of  pressing  the  legisla- 
ture with  them  next  year.  Their  petitions  were 
signed  by  many  thousands.  In  the  meantime,  they 
immediately  sent  to  that  body  a  document,  promis- 
ing Baptist  support  to  the  Revolution  and  asking 
that  their  preachers  be  allowed  to  serve  as  chaplains 
in  the  army.  This  last  request  was  granted  and  then, 
says  Dr.  Hawks,  the  prominent  Episcopal  writer, 
"the  first  step  was  made  toward  placing  the  clergy 
of  all  denominations  on  an  equal  footing  in  Vir- 
ginia." 

9.  Living  up  to  Their  Principles.  In  these  ac- 
tions Baptists  were  only  living  up  to  their  fixed 
principles  regarding  soul  liberty.  It  is  not  to  blame 
the  Presbyterians  to  show  that  their  zeal  and  ac- 
tivity became  much  modified  and  conditioned  as  the 
time  passed.  It  is  to  be  remembered  that  their  an- 
tecedents allowed  them  to  feel  more  kindly  toward 
special  religious  prerogative.  It  would  have  been 
more  blameworthy  of  the  Baptists  had  they  wavered 
or  temporized,  for  their  bed-rock  principles  were 
involved.  In  early  Virginia  Presbyterians  had  more 
scholarly  preachers  than  the  Baptists,  but  the  as- 
tute and  determined  guidance  which  those  early 
Baptist  preachers  gave  to  the  popular  revolt  against 
religious  oppression,  had  in  it  a  competency  which 
was  of  more  value  than  scholastic  learning  and  a 
zeal  which  was  resistless,  because  it  was  illumined 
by  the   lessons   of  the   imprisonments   and   insults 


80  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

they  had  long  borne.  More  than  any  other  body 
of  men  they  had  the  ear  and  the  heart  of  the  masses 
of  the  people,  on  whom  the  cause  of  civil  freedom 
depended,  and  they  used  their  influence  with  untir- 
ing energy,  keen  watchfulness,  and  wonderful  skill 
during  the  entire  period  of  the  conflict,  without 
resting  or  failing  for  a  single  day  until  the  last 
vestige  of  the  Establishment  was  destroyed. 

10.  Pedo-Baptist  Testimony.  While  there  seems 
to  be  an  effort  in  certain  quarters  to  put  into  par- 
tial eclipse  the  great  achievement  of  Baptists  in 
winning  religious  liberty  for  America,  there  is  still 
abundant  non-Baptist  testimony  to  their  primacy 
in  this  work.  Dr.  Hawks,  the  distinguished  Epis- 
copal church  historian,  will  not  be  accused  of  par- 
tiality to  the  Baptists.  He  says  in  his  History  of 
the  Episcopal  Church  of  Virginia:  "The  Baptists 
were  the  principal  promoters  of  the  work  [of  put- 
ting down  the  Establishment],  and  in  truth  aided 
more  than  any  other  denomination  in  its  accom- 
plishment." Bishop  Meade,  also  an  Episcopalian, 
in  Old  Churches  and  Families  of  Virginia,  p.  52, 
says:  "The  Baptists  took  the  lead  in  dissent,  and 
were  the  chief  object  of  persecution  by  the  magis- 
trates, and  the  most  violent  and  persevering  after- 
ward in  seeking  the  downfall  of  the  Establishment. ' ' 
Campbell,  in  History  of  Virginia,  p.  553,  says :  '  *  The 
Baptists,  having  suffered  persecution  under  the  Es- 
tablishment, were  of  all  others  the  most  inimical 
to  it,  and  the  naost  active  in  its  subversion."  The 
author  of  American  State  Papers,  who  is  open  to 
the  suspicion  of  wishing  to  minimize  the  part  of  the 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  RELIGIOUS  LIBERTY      81 

Baptists  in  bringing  religious  liberty,  seems  to  re- 
pent on  page  195,  to  the  extent  of  giving  them  this 
testimony  in  a  foot-note:  "No  church  in  history, 
perhaps,  has  done  more  for  religious  liberty  than 
the  Baptists ;  no  church  has  so  long  and  so  logically 
upheld  the  principles  of  individual  freedom  in  all 
religious  concerns."  Howison  in  History  of  Vir- 
ginia, Vol.  II,  page  170,  says:  ''The  influence  of 
the  Baptists  was  strong  among  the  common  people, 
and  was  beginning  to  be  felt  in  high  places.  In  two 
points  they  were  distinguished.  First,  their  love  for 
freedom.  .  .  .  Secondly,  in  their  hatred  of  the 
church  Establishment.  They  hated  not  its  minis- 
ters, but  its  principles."  Dr.  Leonard  Baker,  who 
was  known  in  his  later  years  as  the  nestor  of  Con- 
gregationalism, writes  thus  of  the  Baptists  in  his 
New  England  Theocracy:  "It  has  been  claimed  for 
these  churches  that  from  the  age  of  the  Reformation 
onward  they  have  always  been  foremost  and  always 
consistent  in  maintaining  the  doctrine  of  religious 
liberty.  Let  me  not  be  understood  as  calling  in  ques- 
tion their  right  to  so  great  an  honor."  WiUiam  H. 
Cobb,  of  Boston,  in  Meaning  of  Christian  Unity,  p. 
136:  "Jefferson  testified  that  he  derived  his  practi- 
cal conceptions  of  civil  liberty  from  the  actual  work- 
ing of  the  doctrine  of  equal  rights  in  a  little  Baptist 
Church  in  Virginia."  Not  one  of  these  Writers  is  a 
Baptist. 

11.  In  1776.  The  Establishment  was  not  put 
down  in  a  year.  It  seemed  to  have  many  lives.  Dis- 
comfited at  one  point  it  fell  back  on  the  next  line 
of  defence.    It  fought  at  many  points  between  1776 


82  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

and  1785,  and  did  not  really  stop  till  1800.  Statutes 
bolstering  it  honey-combed  the  Virginia  code  of 
laws,  and  the  Establishment  strenuously  opposed 
every  new  move  that  increased  the  distance  be- 
tween it  and  the  government  pap.  The  first  gen- 
eral defeat  of  the  Establishment  was  in  1776.  Jeffer- 
son, who  had  left  Congress  to  join  James  Madison 
and  George  Mason  in  leading  the  Virginia  Dis- 
senters in  shaking  off  of  the  backs  of  the  people 
the  incubus  of  the  Virginia  hierarchy,  described 
the  1776  conflict  as  "the  severest  in  which  he  ever 
engaged."  Piles  of  petitions  before  the  Assembly, 
sought  relief  from  the  Establishment.  Jefferson  says 
of  the  result : ' '  After  desperate  contests  in  the  House 
committee  almost  daily  from  the  eleventh  of  Oc- 
tober to  the  fifth  of  December,  a  bill  was  brought  in 
repealing  the  laws  which  restrained  freedom  of 
religious  opinion  in  worship,  exempting  Dissenters 
from  all  levies,  taxes,  and  impositions  whatever  for 
the  support  of  the  Established  Church."  It  was  a 
great  victory;  but  the  Establishment  still  had 
strength  to  make  a  lot  of  trouble  before  it  was 
finally  put  down. 

12.  The  Assessment.  The  apple  of  the  eye  of 
the  Establishment  was  the  assessment.  It  was 
officially  "killed"  in  the  last  paragraph,  but 
the  executioners  had  to  promise  not  to  bury  the  de- 
ceased at  once,  and  there  is  always  danger  such  a 
decedent  may  come  to  life.  "In  the  bill  passed," 
writes  Jefferson  in  Vol.  I,  page  32,  of  his  Works, 
"was  inserted  an  express  reservation  whether  a  gen- 
eral assessment  should  not  be  established  by  law 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  RELIGIOUS  LIBERTY      83 

on  every  one  to  support  the  pastor  of  his  choice; 
or  whether  all  should  be  left  to  voluntary  contribu- 
tion." In  1779  the  Establishment  was  to  see  this 
hopeful  substitute  also  slaughtered.  Not  even  then 
was  the  Establishment  sure  it  must  part  forever 
from  its  well  beloved  assessment.  In  1784,  with 
such  friends  as  it  could  marshall,  it  was  clamoring 
at  the  doors  of  the  legislative  halls  in  petitions 
which  descanted  in  solemn  and  decorous  terms  upon 
the  desirability  of  a  general  assessment,  each  man 
for  his  favored  church.  In  1785  the  last  reincarna- 
tion of  the  Establishment's  good  friend  was  finally 
laid  to  rest.     The  mourners  were  select  but  few. 

13.  Baptists  and  Presbyterians.  Baptists  and 
Presbyterians  were  practically  all  of  the  Dissenters 
in  Virginia  at  this  time.  Both  had  fought  the  as- 
sessment which  they  had  to  pay  to  the  Establish- 
ment. How  did  each  behave  when  confronted  by 
the  touchstone  of  the  general  assessment?  For  the 
Baptists  it  is  sufficient  to  say  that  which  is  abun- 
dantly proven  elsewhere,  that  to  a  man,  layman  and 
preacher,  they  fought  this  insidious  proposition  as 
they  did  all  others  which  meant  the  sacrifice  of 
complete  religious  liberty.  Thomas  Jefferson,  in  his 
Works,  in  the  next  sentence  to  that  quoted  above, 
says:  ''This  question  of  the  general  assessment, 
debated  at  every  session  from  1776  to  1779,  (some 
of  the  dissenting  allies,  having  now  secured  their 
particular  object,  going  over  to  the  advocates  of  a 
general  assessment)  we  could  only  obtain  a  sus- 
pension from  session  to  session  until  1779,  when  the 
question  against  a  general  assessment  was  finally 


84  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

carried,  and  the  establishment  of  the  Anglican 
Church  put  down."  "Who  were  those  "dissenting 
allies?"  Certainly  no  one  has  ever  accused  them 
of  being  Baptists.  An  article  in  Christian  Review 
of  January,  1860,  by  E.  G.  Robinson,  D.  D.,  is  quoted 
by  James  in  Struggle  for  Religious  Liberty  in  Vir- 
ginia, as  follows:  "Among  these  petitioners,  [be- 
fore Virginia  Assembly,  1776]  the  most  active  were 
undoubtedly  the  Presbyterians  and  the  Baptists. 
The  former  argued  their  petitions  on  various 
grounds,  and  indeed  sought  for  different  degrees  of 
religious  freedom,  while  the  latter  were  undeviating 
and  uncompromising  in  their  demands  for  a  total 
exemption  from  every  kind  of  legal  restraint  or  in- 
terference in  matters  of  religion.  For  this  they 
were  misrepresented  and  maligned,  and  treated  with 
every  sort  of  indignity  and  persecution."  It  was 
the  Presbyterians  whose  ardor  cooled  at  this  junc- 
ture.   Corroborative  proof  was  to  follow. 

14.  A  Ridiculous  Spectacle.  The  love  of  money 
has  often  made  men  ridiculous.  The  divisions  of 
the  Presbyterians  over  the  assessment  was  a  thing 
to  make  the  profane  laugh,  but  even  the  children  of 
light  might  be  pardoned  for  smiling  at  the  perform- 
ances of  the  Established  Church  people  when  they 
faced  the  dire  prospect  of  parting  forever  from 
their  adored  assessment.  When  the  contest 
began  there  were  on  one  side  gentlemen  whose 
raiment  was  broadcloth  and  fine  linen  and 
whose  manner  of  living  included  servants  in  livery, 
large  estates,  and  gay  social  functions.  On  the  other 
was  a  people  disadvantaged  socially,  politically,  and 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  RELIGIOUS  LIBERTY      85 

financially.  They  not  seldom  lived  in  cabins  on  rented 
land;  they  wore  buckskin  clothes.  The  gentlemen 
of  broadcloth  affected  to  despise  them,  the  ignorant, 
"impossible"  Baptists.  But  1775  has  ripened  into 
1784.  The  assessment  is  in  dire  straits,  and  these 
plain  people  are  in  a  great  majority  and  have  the 
votes.  Behold  the  favored  and  tender  sons  of  the 
Establishment  with  petitions  in  their  hands  thread- 
ing the  wilderness  paths  on  the  hunt  for  the  cabin 
of  the  hitherto  despised  settler,  their  boots  muddy 
and  their  garments  stained  with  bruised  weeds  and 
covered  with  grass  seed.  They  are  come  to  implore 
the  settler  to  sign  a  petition  to  help  them  hold  on 
to  the  sweet  assessment. 

15.  In  1785.  The  last  crucial  date  for  the  Es- 
tablishment was  in  1785.  The  Presbyterians  divided 
on  the  issue  of  the  general  assessment.  It  did  not 
appeal  to  many  of  the  laymen,  but  nearly  all  the 
ministers  developed  a  strong  liking  for  the  propo- 
sition. The  Episcopalians  beheld  this  and  took  com- 
fort at  the  thought  of  new  allies,  but  they  were  to  be 
disappointed  in  the  event.  In  1784  (See  James' 
Struggle  for  Religious  Liberty  in  Virginia,  126.) 
the  Presbyterian  clergy  went  over  in  a  body  in 
favor  of  a  general  assessment  and  sent  up  a  me- 
morial to  that  effect  to  the  General  Assembly. 
James  Madison,  in  April,  1785,  wrote  a  letter  to 
James  Monroe,  which  appears  in  Rives'  Life  and 
Times  of  Madison,  I,  630,  and  which  is  quoted  in 
James'  Struggle  for  Religious  Liberty  in  Virginia, 
130.  In  the  letter  he  said:  "The  Episcopalians 
are  generally  for  the  assessment,  though  I  think 


86  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

the  zeal  of  some  of  them  has  cooled.  The  laity  of 
the  other  sects  are  generally  unanimous  on  the  other 
side.  So  are  all  the  clergy,  except  the  Presbyterians, 
who  seem  as  ready  to  set  up  an  Establishment  which 
is  to  take  them  in  as  they  were  to  pull  down  that 
which  shuts  them  out.  I  do  not  know  a  more  shame- 
ful contrast  than  might  be  found  between  their  me- 
morial on  the  latter  and  former  occasions."  Hap- 
pily Hanover  Presbytery  was  not  willing  to  stand 
in  this  position.  The  laymen  must  have  taken  the 
preachers  in  hand.  In  May,  1785,  Hanover  Presby- 
tery declared:  "The  opinion  of  Presbytery  was 
taken — whether  they  do  approve  of  any  kind  of  an 
assessment  by  the  General  Assembly  for  the  sup- 
port of  religion.  Presbytery  are  unanimously 
against  such  a  measure."  (Foote's  Sketches  of  Vir- 
ginia, 341.)  The  tardy  Presbyterian  preachers  again 
joined  their  Baptist  brethren  in  the  good  work. 
When  the  State  Assembly  met  there  was  a  flood  of 
petitions  against  the  general  assessment  and  it  was 
at  last  put  down.  At  the  same  session  Jefferson's 
famous  bill  establishing  religious  freedom,  which 
he  prepared  after  repeated  conferences  with  the 
Baptists,  (Howell,  Early  Baptists  of  Virginia,  167) 
was  passed. 

16.  An  Illuminating  Incident.  An  incident  hap- 
pened in  1784  which  shows  that  Presbyterians  at 
that  time  did  not  have  the  settled  convictions  of  the 
Baptists  about  the  separation  of  Church  and  State. 
On  June  1,  1784,  the  trustees  of  Hampden-Sidney 
College  petitioned  the  State  Legislature  to  give 
them  400  acres  of  land  in  the  neighborhood  of  the 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  RELIGIOUS  LIBERTY      87 

college.  This  the  Assembly  granted  on  June  10th. 
It  is  to  be  remembered  that  the  early  Virginia  Pres- 
byterians had  come  from  an  atmosphere  surcharged 
with  religious  privilege  and  had  not  yet  fully  learn- 
ed the  better  way. 

17.  The  First  Amendment.  After  the  contest 
was  won  in  Virginia,  and  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  was  adopted,  the  lynx-eyed  Virginia 
Baptists  scrutinized  that  document  to  see  if  it  prop- 
erly safeguarded  religious  liberty.  They  decided 
that  it  did  not.  They  held  a  consultation  with 
their  friend,  James  Madison,  after  which,  on  Au- 
gust 8,  1789,  their  General  Committee  addressed  a 
communication  on  the  subject  to  President  George 
Washington.  This  communication  and  Washing- 
ton's courteous  and  encouraging  reply  may  be 
found  in  many  historical  volumes.  In  the  reply 
Washington  said  of  the  Baptists  that  they  "have 
been  throughout  America  uniformly  and  almost 
unanimously  the  firm  friends  of  civil  liberty  and  the 
persevering  promoters  of  our  glorious  Revolution." 
The  outcome  of  the  correspondence  was  that  a 
month  later  James  Madison,  with  the  approval  of 
Washington,  introduced  in  the  National  House  of 
Representatives  the  First  Amendment  to  the  Con- 
stitution, to  safeguard  religious  liberty  and  a  free 
and  untrammelled  press.  The  Virginia  Baptists 
were  the  only  Christian  body  which  moved  for  the 
First  Amendment,  and  they  deserve  the  everlasting 
gratitude  of  every  Christian  body  in  America,  ex- 
cept the  Roman  Hierarchy. 

18.  A  Great  Service.     Had  not  the  Amendment 


88  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

been  adopted,  Massachusetts,  from  the  first  disposed 
to  a  State  Church,  and  persecuting  bitterly  both 
Roger  "Williams  and  the  young  State  of  Rhode  Is- 
land, might  today  be  under  the  thraldom  of  an 
established  religion.  So  might  any  other  State  in 
which  one  religious  body  could  get  civil  control. 
Without  this  Amendment,  a  dozen  or  more  American 
States  would  probably  be  openly  and  avowedly  con- 
trolled by  Roman  Catholics.  Of  the  First  Amend- 
ment Cathcart  says:  "The  grandest  feature  of  the 
Constitution  is  the  first  clause  of  the  First  Amend- 
ment. The  Baptists  have  justly  claimed  that  the 
credit  for  this  Amendment  belongs  chiefly  to  them." 
The  Massachusetts  ruling  class  as  bitterly  detested 
religious  liberty  in  those  days  as  did  the  same  class 
in  Virginia.  The  masses  of  the  people  nowhere 
found  their  voice  at  this  critical  juncture,  except 
through  Virginia  Baptists.  God  gave  them  a  voice 
and  two  powerful  friends — Washington  and  Madi- 
son. That  which  the  people  wanted  but  which  had 
been  everywhere  spoken  against,  was  performed  by 
those  two  great  statesmen,  and  to  America  was  se- 
cured the  priceless  boon  of  religious  liberty.  Some 
writers  are  today  anxious  to  claim  for  other  relig- 
ious bodies  the  credit  of  bringing  religious  liberty. 
One  almost  despairs  of  the  public  ever  learning  the 
truth  about  a  controverted  question  of  history  so 
long  as  there  are  men  living  whose  predilections  tend 
to  warp  vision. 

19.  Episcopal  Claims.  Dr.  Randolph  Harrison 
McKim,  Episcopal  clergyman  at  Washington,  D.  C, 
and  President  of  the  House   of  Clerical  and  Lay 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  RELIGIOUS  LIBERTY      89 

Deputies,  in  an  article  on  "Established  Church  in 
Virginia"  in  the  South  in  the  Building  of  the  Na- 
tion, Vol.  X,  pages  437-452,  declares  that  "we  may 
fairly  trace  in  the  histories  of  the  vestries  the  origin, 
not  only  of  that  religious  liberty  which  afterwards 
developed  itself  in  Virginia,  but  also  of  the  early 
and  determined  stand  taken  by  the  Episcopalians 
in  Virginia,  on  behalf  of  civil  liberty."  Again  Dr. 
McKim  says:  "These  churchmen  of  the  thirteen 
colonies,  in  common  with  their  Protestant  brethren 
of  other  names,  had  felt  the  impulse  of  the  Reforma- 
tion  toward  personal  liberty  in  Church  and  State. 
Only,  the  English  church  was  looked  to  as  the  great 
bulwark  of  the  Protestant  cause,  and  this,  perhaps, 
naturally  intensified  their  feelings  as  the  sons  and 
heirs  of  liberty."  This  seems  to  mean  that  the 
English  Church  in  England,  where  it  still  "tolerates" 
the  non-conformists,  and  by  governmental  aid  en- 
joys rights  it  does  its  best  to  keep  them  from  having, 
is  more  zealous  for  religious  liberty  than  other  evan- 
gelical bodies  are.  It  seems  to  mean  that  in  Vir- 
ginia and  other  Colonies,  where  the  early  Episcopal 
body  for  more  than  a  century  used  to  the  full  its  pow- 
er of  special  prerogatives  from  the  State  to  discour- 
age, crowd  out,  and  persecute  persons  of  other  faiths 
than  its  own,  this  Established  Church  group  had  a 
more  intense  desire  for  religious  liberty  than  others. 
In  this  article,  which  has  unfortunately  been  ac- 
corded a  place  in  these  volumes,  the  purpose  of  which 
is  to  represent  fairly  and  dispassionately  the  facts 
concerning  the  life  of  the  South,  the  able  Dr.  McKim 
magnifies  at  length  the  service  which  George  Mason, 


90  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

Patrick  Henry,  George  Washington,  and  other  dis- 
tinguished Americans  of  that  day  who  were  mem- 
bers of  the  Episcopal  church,  rendered  to  the  cause 
of  religious  liberty,  and  in  his  admiration  of  their 
good  work  forgets  to  mention  that  the  Establishment 
as  a  body  was  bitterly  opposed  to  religious  liberty 
and  fought  with  every  weapon  it  could  command 
and  by  every  means  available  its  every  step  of 
progress. 

20.  The  Facts  Refute  the  Claims.  We  welcome 
Dr.  McKim  and  other  Episcopalians  to  that  group 
of  Americans  who  take  pride  in  the  separation  of 
Church  and  State  in  this  country.  It  is  to  their 
credit  that  they  should  desire  to  claim  an  honorable 
part  and  even  a  monopoly  in  bringing  about  in 
America  so  great  a  boon  to  mankind.  But  it  is  de- 
sirable for  all  parties  that  no  one  should  claim  for 
his  religious  group  more  than  the  facts  justify. 
Baptists  take  pleasure  in  all  that  the  Episcopalian 
brethren  do  to  bring  the  Kingdom  of  God  among 
men,  but  cannot  forget  the  indisputable  facts  of  the 
imprisonments  and  the  flagellations  and  contemp- 
tuous persecutions  which  their  spiritual  forefathers 
received  at  the  instigation  and  with  the  participation 
of  both  Episcopal  vestrymen  and  clergymen  in 
Colonial  Virginia  and  in  the  Carolinas  and  Georgia. 
Nor  can  any  student  of  history  dispute  the  record 
of  the  industrious,  determined,  and  sometimes  bitter 
opposition  of  the  Establishment  to  every  act  of  the 
legislature  of  Virginia  that  looked  toward  or  even 
squinted  at  a  larger  measure  of  religious  rights  to 
others    than    Episcopalians.      "The     sons     of    the 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  RELIGIOUS  LIBERTY      91 

Church"  of  whom  Dr.  McKim  speaks  above,  deserve 
all  the  honor  Episcopalians  or  others  can  give  them. 
They  were  patriots  and  statesmen  and  they  worked 
for  religious  liberty  against  the  dominant  spirit  of 
their  own  church,  because  in  the  atmosphere  of  lib- 
erty created  by  a  strong  and  growing  Baptist  con- 
stituency in  America  they  were  given  to  see  that  the 
State  Church  had  no  place.  It  is  well  to  know  that 
their  advocacy  of  religious  liberty  is  now  celebrated 
by  Episcopalians,  for  it  shows  that  they  have  today 
a  more  wholesome  attitude  toward  soul  freedom, 
which  was  consistently  and  ably  supported  from  the 
beginning  by  Baptists  in  opposition  to  odds  created 
chiefly  by  the  Episcopacy.  This  position  of  Episco- 
palians is  as  far  as  the  east  is  from  the  west  from 
that  which  they  held  and  by  every  means  defended 
until  Episcopalianism  was  forever  routed  out  of  its 
place  as  a  State  Church  in  America. 

21.  Honor  where  Honor  is  Due.  Baptists  and 
Presbyterians  under  God  brought  in  America  the 
blessing  of  religious  liberty.  It  is  an  accomplish- 
ment great  enough  to  share.  The  treatment  in  this 
volume  is  too  brief  to  claim  to  be  with  even  approxi- 
mate adequacy  a  history  of  the  struggle.  It  does, 
however,  claim  to  treat  fairly  and  honestly  the  most 
significant  facts  in  that  struggle.  It  has  been  pain- 
ful to  discount  claims  made  by  a  Presbyterian 
writer  for  the  primacy  of  his  religious  group,  a 
group  so  justly  distinguished  in  many  ways  for 
high  service  to  the  commonwealth.  But  when  such 
a  writer  purports  to  speak  dispassionately,  not  only 
for  his  own  body  but  for  Baptists,  and  then  blithely 


92  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

proceeds  to  shove  the  Baptists  from  the  stage  out 
into  the  wings  and  to  put  his  own  group  well  up  in 
the  front  center  of  the  stage  under  the  bright  lights, 
where  history  proves  that  it  does  not  belong  in  the 
Virginia  struggle,  Baptists  have  no  alternative  other 
than  to  set  forth  the  facts,  both  as  they  relate  to 
themselves  and  to  other  religious  bodies.  We  re- 
joice greatly  in  all  that  others  did  and  do  for  re- 
ligious liberty.  But,  in  the  long  persecution  suf- 
fered by  Baptists;  in  the  mockings  and  sneers  and 
indignities  heaped  upon  them  by  the  haughty  State 
Church  group,  from  Massachusetts  to  Georgia,  and 
particularly  in  Virginia ;  and  in  the  patient  humility 
but  undeterred  pertinacity  and  resoluteness  with 
which  they  endured  it  all  and  went  about  the  stu- 
pendous task  of  correcting  it.  Baptists  have  won  a 
certain  idealistic  right  to  claim  supremacy  in  that 
great  struggle.  This  primacy  in  devotion  and  suffer- 
ing the  facts  of  history  abundantly  prove  to  have 
been  equalled  by  their  supremacy  in  bringing  con- 
crete results  in  the  laws  of  the  land. 

22.  A  Challenge  to  Baptists.  When  the  fight  for 
religious  liberty  began,  Baptists  were  despised. 
When  it  was  in  progress,  their  consistency  and  their 
willingness  to  suffer  for  conscience '  sake,  drew  many 
new  members  to  their  ranks.  Not  a  few  of  their 
persecutors  became  converts  and  themselves  endured 
persecution.  They  began  to  grow  with  great  rapid- 
ity. From  that  day  to  this  they  have  been  the  most 
numerous  body  in  the  South;  in  Virginia  and  the 
five  older  States  next  south  and  southwest  they  equal 
all  other  religious  bodies  combined.     That  growth 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  RELIGIOUS  LIBERTY      93 

had  its  cause  not  in  the  favor  and  plaudits  of  men, 
but  in  persecution  endured  and  in  a  faithful  spirit 
which  despised  the  shame,  if  only  they  might  please 
Jesus.  Baptists  of  today,  honored  and  wealthy  and 
popular  and  strong  in  the  goods  which  the  world 
seeks,  are  in  danger  of  forgetting  whence  they  came. 
Either  we  must  respond  to  the  challenge  of  the  spir- 
itual heroism  of  those  pioneer  Baptists,  who  led  in 
the  conflict  which  brought  to  America  the  immeas- 
urable blessings  of  religious  liberty,  or  prove  our- 
selves unworthy  of  the  success  which  God  has  given 
us.  If  we  are  to  bless  the  coming  generation  with 
the  same  extent  of  service  with  which  our  sires  by 
their  faithfulness  blessed  ours,  we  shall  do  well  to 
apply  to  ourselves  and  our  children  the  moral  tonic 
of  a  study  and  understanding  of  who  these  sires 
were  and  what  they  did.  In  their  tutelage  we, 
in  this  day  of  amiable  acquiescence  can  not 
but  learn  that  it  is  better  to  be  pleasers  of  God  than 
pleasers  of  men. 

TEST  QUESTIONS  ON  CHAPTER  IV. 

1.  Is  it  proper  for  a  religious  body  to  desire  due  credit  for 
worthy  deeds  done?  What  is  the  contention  of  thi» 
chapter  ? 

2.  Tell  of  the  claims  made  in  a  recent  publication  concerning 
the  Presbyterian  participancy  in  the  Virginia  conflict  for 
liberty. 

3.  Tell  of  the  worth  of  Presbyterians  and  their  services  to 
society.  Can  Baptists  afford  to  allow  credit  for  the  great- 
est single  service  they  ever   rendered  the  country  to  be 

taken  from  them? 

4.  What  was  the  relation  of  Presbyterians  to  the  State  Church 
in  Scotland?    What  in  England  after  Charles  I? 


94  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

5.  What  did  the  Presbyterians  find  in  Virginia?  What  peti- 
tion did  the  Hanover  Presbytery  send  up  in  1774?  How 
many  Baptist  petitions  bad  been  sent  up  before  then? 
Did  the  Hanover  petition  ask  for  religious  liberty? 

6.  What  is  claimed  for  the  Presbyterians  in  connection  with 
the  Stamp  Act  in  1765?  Tell  the  story  of  how  this  Act 
was  passed  and  rescinded. 

7.  Quote  Howison  concerning  Baptist  growth  in  1774.  Give 
comparative  number  of  Baptists  and  Presbyterians  in  1789. 
What  of  the  difference  of  principles  which  actuated  the 
two  groups?  What  happened  to  the  Stamp  Act  principle 
in  1776? 

8.  When  did  the  Baptists  first  ask  outright  that  the  Estab- 
lishment be  overthrown?  Did  any  other  religious  group 
join  them  then  in  their  request?  Did  the  petitions  cir- 
culated by  Baptists  usually  bear  their  name?  Why  not? 
What  does  Dr.  Hawks  say  was  the  first  step  taken  toward 
placing  preachers  of  different  bodies  on  an  equal  footing? 

9.  Tell  how  Baptists  were  only  living  up  to  their  principles 
in  these  activities.  What  was  their  relation  to  the  masses 
of  the  people? 

10.  Give  some  prominent  non-Baptist  testimony  to  the  Baptist 
primacy  in  this  conflict. 

11.  Tell  of  the  first  general  defeat  of  the  Establishment  in 
1776. 

12.  Show  how  the  Establishment  made  itself  ridiculous  in 
trying  to  hold  on  to  the  assessment  Tell  of  the  fondness 
of  the  Establishment  for  the  assessment  What  special 
reservation  was  inserted  in  the  bill  of  1776? 

13.  Tell  how  Baptists  were  left  alone  as  a  Christian  body  to 
fight  the  general  assessment  Quote  Dr.  Robinson  on  the 
consistency  of  the  Baptists  at  that  time. 

14.  Show  to  what  ridiculous  extremes  the  Establishment  went 
to  try  to  keep  the  assessment 

15.  Tell  of  the  last  effort  of  the  Episcopalians  to  save  the 
assessment  in  1785.  Quote  James  Madison  on  the  "line  up" 
at  this  time.  Tell  of  Hanover  Presbytery's  joining  again 
in  opposition  to  the  general  assessment 


THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  RELIGIOUS  LIBERTY      95 

16.  Tell  of  400  acres  of  land  asked  from  the  State  by  and 
given  to  the  Presbyterians. 

17.  Tell  of  the  Baptists  and  the  First  Amendment  to  the 
Constitution.  Did  any  other  Christian  body  move  for  this 
amendment? 

18.  Show  what  the  First  Amendment  secures  America  from. 
Who  were  the  only  voice  of  the  people  at  that  time? 

19.  Give  some  recent  claims  of  a  prominent  Episcopal  writer. 
Show  the  fallacy  of  his  claims  concerning  Washington, 
Patrick  Henry,  and  George  Mason. 

20.  What  indisputable  facts  of  history  discredit  the  statements 
of  Dr.  McKim? 

21.  Tell  why  Baptists  should  set  forth  the  facts  of  that  monu- 
mental conflict.  What  do  both  sentiment  and  the  facts 
prove  ? 

22.  How  is  this  victory  a  challenge  to  Baptists?  Compare  the 
contempt  in  which  they  were  held  in  1770  with  the  honor 
and  wealth  which  are  theirs  today.  What  subtle  danger 
does  the  great  change  expose  them  to?  Can  we  perform 
a  more  noble  service  now  with  our  strength  and  the  public 
acclaim  than  our  spiritual  fathers  did  when  they  were 
of  all  men  most  despised  and  contemptuously  treated? 


With  increase  of  numbers,  especially  in  the  populous 
centers,  came  a  desire  among  Baptists  for  improvement  in 
ministerial  qualifications,  pastoral  compensation,  and  en- 
larged ideas  of  missionary  operation.  The  advocacy  of  such 
views  aroused  opposition  which  manifested  itself  in  a  gen- 
eral anti-missionary  spirit  which  did  much  to  impede  the 
progress  of  the  Baptists  in  the  South.  If  human  agency  was 
objectionable  in  the  equipment  of  the  sacred  ministry,  it  was 
equally  so  in  the  creation  of  means  for  disseminating  the 
sacred  gospel.  Hence,  Sunday-schools,  Bible  societies,  and 
Mission  Boards  were  ranked  in  the  same  objectionable  cate- 
gory with  ministerial  education.  It  was  at  this  point  that  the 
fiercest  struggle  began  on  the  part  of  the  Baptists  of  the 
South,  and  it  may  be  said  that  it  has  been  continued  to  the 
present  time.  As  local  missionaries  the  Baptists  have  never 
been  surpassed  by  any  other  people  in  the  South.  Their 
ministry  has  been  the  most  active  and  self-sacrificing  ia 
giving  the  gospel  to  the  destitute  regions;  but  if  the  effort 
was  made  by  the  most  progressive  to  urge  the  claims  of  the 
remoter  portions  of  the  world,  firm  opposition  would  ensue. 
Planting  themselves  steadfastly  in  this  position,  those  of 
more  restricted  views  waged  a  steady  and  relentless  war 
throughout  the  States  of  the  South  against  foreign  missions. 
— B.   F.  Riley  in  History  of  Baptists  in  Southern  States. 


CHAPTER  V. 
MISSIONARY  BEGINNINGS. 

1.  Early  Preachers  Were  Missionary.  The  prin- 
ciple of  missions  may  be  defined  as  a  passion  for  lost 
souls  manifesting  itself  by  seeking  to  win  them  to 
salvation  through  the  gospel.  "Whatever  there  is 
more  than  this  in  our  present  definition  of  missions 
is  a  matter  of  education  rather  than  principle.  It  is 
not  our  desire  to  idealize  the  early  Baptist  preach- 
ers beyond  their  due,  but  rather  to  estimate  them 
fairly  in  the  light  of  all  of  the  facts  and  of  the  con- 
ditions and  limitations  which  surrounded  them. 
Considering  these,  it  can  be  demonstrated  that  the 
fire  of  missionary  zeal  burned  in  the  hearts  of  these 
early  preachers  to  a  degree  equalled  by  few  and 
certainly  not  until  this  day  surpassed  by  their  de- 
scendants. 

2.  They  Put  First  Things  First.  Their  first  mis- 
sionary effort  was  necessarily  to  create  a  constitu- 
ency, and  in  this  they  engaged  with  matchless  zeal. 
Apostles  of  soul  liberty,  they  and  the  people  saw  and 
knew  little  of  co-operative  religious  effort,  except 
such  as  their  enemies  used  for  their  undoing.  Their 
jealousy  for  liberty  made  them  suspicious  of  large 
co-operative  bodies,  lest  these  should  become  central- 
ized and  oppressive.  There  did  not  exist  an  educa- 
tional propaganda  sufficient  to  teach  them  about  the 
world  field.  They  did  not  know  fully  the  needs 
of  their  own  land,  but  their  holy  passion  sent  them 
forth. 


98  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

3.  The  Spiritual  Grandeur  of  Their  Work.  Time 
was  to  come  when  their  definition  of  missions  would 
grow  till,  like  the  Commission  in  Matthew  and  Acts, 
it  would  in  its  extent  embrace  the  whole  world.  But, 
surrounded  as  they  were  by  a  new  country  to  be 
taken  for  Christ,  knowing  as  they  did  little  about  the 
heathen  world  and  with  few  opportunities  to  learn, 
without  organization  for  work  either  at  home  or 
abroad,  it  was  not  surprising  that  the  holy  mission- 
ary zeal  of  the  early  preachers  turned  its  whole 
force  toward  individual  efforts  to  carry  the  gospel 
to  the  outlying  wilderness  of  the  new  country. 
Before  we  criticise  we  need  to  consider  that  their 
Baptist  definitioii  of  missions  had  not  yet  become  as 
comprehensive  as  the  Great  Commission.  That  ut- 
terance contemplates  teaching  and  intensive  devel- 
opment as  well  as  extensive  outreach,  but  until  this 
day  our  Baptist  eyes  have  been  much  holden  from 
perceiving  this  fact  and  its  stupendous  implications 
as  to  the  missionary  enterprise.  Their  evangelistic 
program  was  limited  in  outreach  as  compared  with 
that  of  today,  but  it  suffered  nothing  by  com- 
parison in  devotion,  labor,  sacrifice,  and  will- 
ingness to  endure  hardship  that  the  lost  might  be 
saved.  It  is  a  cardinal  mistake  to  view  lightly  as 
compared  with  our  day  the  spiritual  bigness  of  these 
men  and  their  task.  To  do  so  bespeaks  ignorance 
or  lack  of  ability  rightly  to  estimate  spiritual  values. 

4.  An  Unsurpassed  Evangelism.  The  Baptist 
preachers  of  the  early  days  had  a  devotion  to  win- 
ning the  lost  and  a  success  in  this  holy  effort  prob- 
ably not  surpassed  since  the  days  of  the  Apostles. 


MISSIONARY  BEGINNINGS  99 

Without  pay,  at  the  price  of  repeated  persecutions, 
of  hard  labor,  and  of  the  sacrifice  of  their  own  inter- 
ests and  comfort,  they  carried  the  gospel  to  the 
outposts  of  civilization  and  in  the  older  settlements 
maintained  it  with  unabated  devotion  and  remark- 
able success.  Their  devotion  seemed  to  be  without 
bounds.  The  examples  given  in  Chapter  11  did  not 
more  than  touch  the  hem  of  the  garment  of  the 
recorded  illustrations  of  their  saintly  zeal,  and  there 
is  reason  to  believe  that  both  the  printed  record 
and  oral  tradition  combined  scarcely  more  than 
suggest  the  great  number  of  Baptist  preachers 
whose  desire  to  lead  men  to  Christ  was  intense 
and  whose  labors  developed  Baptists  in  the  South 
from  a  handful  in  1770  to  467,000  in  1850,  a  number 
larger  than  that  of  any  other  religious  body. 
Episcopalians  had  the  State  Church,  Methodists  nes- 
tled under  their  sheltering  wing,  Presbyterians  had 
the  advantages  of  scholarship.  These  Baptist  preach- 
ers, more  or  less  discountenanced  and  disliked  by 
all  other  Christian  groups,  had  only  the  open  Book 
and  a  passion  for  souls  and  soul  liberty.  Their 
winning  of  the  South  for  soul  liberty  and  the  Baptist 
faith  is  one  of  the  most  thrilling  chapters  in  the 
history  of  missionary  achievement.  To  churches, 
Associations,  and  other  agencies  due  credit  will  be 
given,  but  to  those  early  preachers,  unlearn- 
ed but  not  ignorant,  unloved  by  the  powers  that 
were,  but  honored  of  God  and  of  a  great  body  of 
spiritual  children — to  these  men,  too  nearly  forgotten 
and  too  little  appreciated  in  these  more  favored 
days  of  education  and  co-operative  Kingdom  effort, 


100  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

is  due  more  credit  for  the  missionary  passion  and 
effort  which  has  won  the  South  to  Christ  than  is 
probably  due  to  all  other  agencies. 

5.  Etheridge,  Walker,  Watkins,  and  Marshall. 
Even  in  the  inadequate  published  records  inspiring 
examples  of  this  pioneer  missionary  zeal  are  so 
plentiful  that  it  is  almost  impossible  to  choose  be- 
tween them.  There  was  Thomas  Etheridge  of  North 
Carolina,  who  began  preaching  in  Chowan  Associa- 
tion in  1782  and  of  whom  the  record  of  that  body 
in  1810  says:  "His  soul  was  so  much  in  the  spirit 
of  preaching  that  often,  leaving  his  family  and  all 
behind,  he  would  start  right  off  for  six  or  seven 
weeks  together,  preaching  often  three  times  a  day. 
He  was  frequently  attacked  in  the  pulpit  and  once 
his  life  was  nearly  endangered  under  the  hands  of 
the  old-church  men.  From  these  he  underwent  great 
and  severe  trials.  In  Princess  Anne  County,  Vir- 
ginia, he  was  attacked  by  a  mob,  who  threatened  to 
pull  him  down  from  the  trunk  of  a  tree  he  was  using 
as  a  pulpit  and  beat  him  for  the  offense  of  being  a 
Baptist  preacher."  There  was  Jeremiah  Walker  of 
Virginia,  of  whom  it  was  said:  ''He  was  almost 
incessantly  engaged  in  preaching  the  gospel.  In  a 
few  years,  aided  principally  by  young  preachers  of 
his  own  training,  he  planted  between  twenty  and 
thirty  churches  south  of  the  James  River.  In  these 
a  number  of  gifted  characters  afterwards  became 
preachers,  all  directly  or  indirectly  through  his  ef- 
forts." There  was  Benjamin  Watkins  of  Virginia, 
of  whom  it  was  written  by  Taylor:  "It  was  his 
ambition  to  occupy  the  most  destitute  portions  of  the 


MISSIONARY  BEGINNINGS  101 

Lord's  vineyard.  He  annually  performed  tours 
through  five  counties.  His  yearly  visits  were  antici- 
pated with  unfeigned  joy."  There  was  Daniel  Mar- 
shall, who  founded  the  first  Baptist  church  in  Geor- 
gia, and  of  whom  Dr.  Newman  says:  "He  was  in- 
stant in  season  and  out  of  season.  At  musters  or 
races,  in  the  open  fields,  at  the  market-place,  in 
the  army  or  in  the  home,  he  was  always  ready  to 
proclaim  salvation  through  a  crucified  Redeemer,  and 
multitudes  heard  and  heeded  his  words."  Of  the 
work  of  such  men  in  Georgia  the  elder  P.  H.  Mell 
wrote:  "They  revolutionized  religious  opinions 
over  all  the  regions  in  which  they  operated,  brought 
multitudes  to  Christ,  and  planted  vigorous  churches 
in  every  neighborhood  in  the  State  affording  suffi- 
cient population,  and  laid  broad  and  deep  the  foun- 
dations of  Georgia  as  a  Baptist  State."  The  same 
testimony  would  apply  with  equal  force  to  nearly 
every  State  in  the  South. 

6.  The  Churches  and  Missions.  Next  to  the 
preachers  the  churches  became  active  in  missionary 
work.  Churches  formed  and  nourished  by  such 
preachers  could  not  be  indifferent  to  sending  the 
gospel  to  others.  Two  notable  examples  of  mis- 
sionary spirit  in  the  early  churches  were  the  Old 
First  Church  of  Charleston,  South  Carolina,  and 
Sandy  Creek  Church  in  North  Carolina.  Early  in 
the  eighteenth  century  the  Charleston  church  began 
to  establish  other  churches  in  South  and  North  Caro- 
lina, and  in  1755  it  led  the  Charleston  Association 
to  the  first  formal  missionary  work  by  an  Associa- 
tion in  the  South,  and  the  first  in  America,  except  a 


102  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

similar  move  by  the  Philadephia  Association  in 
the  same  year.  The  missionaries  sent  over  by 
the  English  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the 
Gospel  in  Foreign  Parts,  reported  back,  **  Every- 
where we  go  the  Baptists  are  before  us." 

7.  Sandy  Creek.  A.  L.  Vail  in  The  Morning  Hour 
of  American  Baptist  Missions  says  that  the  most 
remarkable  early  American  Baptist  church  in  its 
missionary  operations  was  Sandy  Creek  Church  in 
North  Carolina.  Its  almost  incredible  expansion 
gathered  aroujid  the  stalwart  Shubal  Stearns,  with 
whom  Daniel  Marshall  was  closely  associated. 
Preachers  multiplied  in  Sandy  Creek  who  spread 
the  glad  tidings  near  and  far,  but  all  radiated  from 
the  church  and  gathered  their  converts  to  it.  The 
church  in  seventeen  years  spread  her  branches  south 
as  far  as  Greorgia,  eastward  to  the  sea,  and  north- 
ward to  the  Potomac.  In  seventeen  years  it  became 
the  mother,  grandmother,  and  great-grandmother  of 
forty-two  churches,  from  which  sprang  one  hundred 
and  twenty-five  ministers. 

8.  The  Association.  The  first  purpose  of  the 
early  Baptist  Associations  was  not  missions,  but 
union  and  fellowship.  The  Charleston  at  its  organi- 
zation in  1751  declared  its  object  to  be  the  promo- 
tion of  the  Redeemer's  Kingdom  by  the  maintenance 
of  love  and  fellowship  and  by  consultations  for  the 
peace  and  welfare  of  the  churches.  Sandy  Creek 
Association,  formed  in  1758  at  the  instance  of  the 
Sandy  Creek  Church,  was  with  the  purpose  of  fur- 
thering the  designs  of  that  mother  church  and  its 
children,  and  these  were  both  fellowship  and  evan- 


MISSIONARY  BEGINNINGS  103 

gelization.  These  were  the  two  oldest  Associations 
in  the  South,  and  may  be  taken  as  typical  of  the 
purposes  of  these  earliest  Baptist  co-operative  bodies, 
except  that  the  idea  of  fellowship  and  consultation 
in  these  two  budded  into  service  and  missions  more 
rapidly  than  they  did  in  most  of  the  Associations 
which  were  formed  during  the  last  half  of  the  eigh- 
teenth and  the  early  years  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
turies. 

9.  First  Committal  to  Co-operative  Missions. 
Great  and  almost  inconceivable  as  the  evangelistic 
missionary  service  of  the  pioneer  preachers  had  been 
in  the  South,  until  now  there  was  very  little  evidence 
that  they  were  supported  by  others  in  their  wilder- 
ness gospel  tours.  Even  when  their  churches  had 
released  them  for  these  tours,  it  had  been  perhaps 
more  because  the  preacher  was  serving  the  church 
mostly  at  his  own  charges,  than  because  they 
wished  to  support  him  when  they  let  him  go. 
But  many  of  the  churches  unquestionably  did  enter 
heartily  into  the  spirit  of  this  service,  and  thus  a 
beginning  was  made  for  their  support  later  of  mis- 
sionaries on  the  field.  The  old  Charleston  Associa- 
tion led  the  way  in  1755  in  a  committal  of  its  body 
to  the  support  of  missions.  * '  Taking  into  considera- 
tion the  destitute  condition  of  many  places  in  the 
interior  settlements  of  this  and  the  neighboring 
provinces,"  writes  Wood  Furman  in  his  book, 
Charleston  Association,  "the  body  recommended 
to  the  churches  to  make  contributions  for  the  sup- 
port of  a  missionary  to  itinerate  in  those  parts." 


104  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

This  was  done.    Rev.  John  Gano  was  secured  and  his 
work  was  crowned  with  large  success. 

10.  A  Far-Reaching  Resolution.  Simple  as  was 
the  wording  of  the  Charleston  resolution,  it  not  only- 
started  the  first  co-operative  missionary  effort  by  a 
Baptist  body  in  the  South,  but  had  in  it  the  seeds 
of  our  whole  Southern  Baptist  method  of  missionary 
organization  today,  as  distinguished  from  the  meth- 
od which  has  long  been  in  vogue  among  the  Bap- 
tists of  the  North.  Just  why  they  did  it  there  is 
not  space  to  conjecture,  but  the  Northern  brethren 
formed  Mission  Societies  distinct  from  the  Associa- 
tions and  others  than  Baptists  were  eligible  to  mem- 
bership. The  Southern  idea,  started  by  the  Char- 
leston Association,  was  that  missions  was  the  work 
of  the  churches  and  must  be  directed  by  them,  and 
that  the  Association  as  their  co-operative  vehicle  was 
the  proper  agency  through  which  their  effort  should 
head  up  and  be  administered.  This  same  principle, 
expanded  one  or  two  steps  further  to  meet  the  needs 
of  the  larger  participation  of  our  whole  body,  is  that 
which  underlies,  conditions,  and  directs  our  entire 
Southern  Baptist  missionary  program  today. 

11.  Long  Years  of  Germination.  The  example  of 
organized  missionary  effort  thus  given,  was  not  rap- 
idly followed  by  other  Associations.  In  fact  rela- 
tively few  Associations  were  formed  until  about  fifty 
years  later.  When  they  were  organized,  the  ideas 
of  fellowship  and  internal  welfare  were  all  most  of 
them  had  in  mind.  This  idea  embraced  much  preach- 
ing. Sometimes  as  many  as  six  sermons  would  be 
delivered  by  different  ministers  in  the  course  of  a 


MISSIONARY  BEGINNINGS  105 

single  day.  Usually  these  were  distinctly  evangel- 
istic, sometimes  they  were  doctrinal,  and  church 
order  engaged  much  attention.  It  may  be  said  of 
nearly  all  the  early  Associations  that  they  were  mis- 
sionary in  the  limited  sense  of  being  evangelistic. 
About  the  close  of  the  second  decade  of  the  nine- 
teenth century,  the  idea  of  co-operative,  money-sup- 
ported missions  began  to  press  itself  with  force  upon 
the  Associations  in  the  South. 

12.  Before  the  Warfare.  During  this  period  there 
were  some  beginnings  in  co-operative  missions 
among  Baptists  in  Virginia,  North  Carolina,  South 
Carolina,  Georgia,  Kentucky,  and  Tennessee.  In 
1806  Goshen  Association,  Virginia,  expressed  its 
approbation  of  mission  work  among  the  Indians, 
** provided  any  practicable  plan  could  be  invented." 
In  1809  Chowan  Association,  North  Carolina,  initia- 
ted a  "Committee  of  Correspondence"  between  As- 
sociations in  the  State,  which  the  Chowan  minute 
of  1811  says  became  missionary  in  purpose.  In  1815 
Sandy  Creek  Association  sent  two  messengers  and 
two  dollars  to  this  General  Committee  meeting,  and 
in  1818  this  Association  adopted  a  resolution  rec- 
ommending that  the  churches  support  Foreign  and 
Domestic  Missions.  In  South  Carolina  the  mission 
banner  raised  by  the  Charleston  Association  was 
never  taken  down,  nor  was  there  any  noisy  conflict 
waged  around  it,  though  perhaps  intensive  missions 
in  the  guise  of  ministerial  education  received  more 
attention  up  untU  the  formation  of  the  Triennial 
Convention  than  evangelistic  missions  received. 
Some      mission     work     was      done      among      the 


106  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

Catawba  Indians  near  the  line  between  South  and 
North  Carolina.  The  Savannah  River  Association, 
now  of  South  Carolina  but  then  composed  of  Georgia 
and  South  Carolina  churches  near  Savannah,  in  1813 
sent  out  to  the  churches  a  communication  calling 
on  them  to  support  Home  and  Foreign  Missions. 
A  month  later  the  Savannah  Baptist  Society  for 
Foreign  Missions  issued  a  circular  letter  and  the 
Georgia  Association  in  1814  approved  it  and  pledged 
itself  to  support  Foreign  Mission  work.  As  early 
as  1801  the  Georgia  Association  had  shown  interest 
in  Indian  missions,  but  had  not  actually  entered 
upon  the  work. 

13.  Kentucky  and  Tennessee.  Early  Baptists  in 
Kentucky  and  Tennessee  had  similar  experiences  in 
missionary  beginnings,  with  the  difference  that  the 
denomination  developed  more  rapidly  in  Kentucky 
in  the  earliest  days  and  played  the  helpful  part  of 
big  brother  to  the  beginners  in  Tennessee.  In  both 
States  individual  missionary  evangelism  prospered 
wonderfully.  In  both  this  was  followed  by  co-opera- 
tive effort  through  the  Associations  and  in  both  there 
was  to  break  out  about  1816  probably  the  most 
violent  and  sustained  anti-mission  agitation  which 
was  experienced  by  any  of  the  States,  ex- 
cept perhaps  Alabama.  In  1813  Elkhorn  Asso- 
ciation, Kentucky,  appropriated  about  $65  to  send 
Revs.  John  and  James  Sutton  to  do  mission  work 
in  Tennessee.  About  twelve  years  before  that  date 
the  Association  had  sent  a  missionary  to  labor  among 
the  Indians  in  the  West.  Long  Run,  Tate's  Creek, 
and  South  Kentucky  Associations  each  had  its  mis- 


MISSIONARY  BEGINNINGS  107 

sionaries  working  in  territory  beyond  its  own  bor- 
ders. Dr.  D.  Dowden  in  Jubilee  Volume  of  Ken- 
tucky Baptists  declares  that  "the  early  Baptists  of 
Kentucky  were  missionary  to  the  core,"  and  Dr. 
J.  H.  Spencer  declares  that  "an  anti-missionary 
Baptist  was  unknown  in  Kentucky  previous  to 
1815."  Of  Tennessee  Riley  says:  "The  Baptist 
churches  of  that  State  were  among  the  first  warmly 
to  espouse  the  cause  of  missions  in  foreign  parts, 
but  this  was  followed  by  a  most  violent  reaction. ' ' 

14.  Day  of  Organization  to  Dawn.  It  will  be  ob- 
served that  up  until  now  the  Baptist  on-going  in  the 
South  in  its  impact  on  society  had  not  only  been 
democratic,  but  prevailingly  individualistic.  Our 
fathers  loved  liberty  so  well  that  they  honestly  fear- 
ed organization.  Not  a  few  fought  against  the 
organization  of  Associations.  Many  of  them  fought 
co-operative  missions  in  an  honest  and  serious  fear 
that  it  meant  centralization.  We  of  today  have 
learned  through  co-operation  to  work  together 
without  centralization  or  a  religious  aristocracy. 
But  if  we  are  wise  we  will  love  democracy  as  much 
as  they  did,  and  if  we  are  modest  we  will  respect 
their  fears.  Those  very  fears  have  done  an  un- 
measured amount  to  save  us  from  the  evils 
which  they  thought  threatened  Zion.  The  pre-or- 
ganization  day  was  getting  ready  to  make  its  great 
grapple  with  the  day  of  organization  and  co-opera- 
tion. It  was  to  precipitate  a  fight  to  the  finish.  But 
that  battle  of  giants  will  require  a  chapter  of  its 
own. 


108  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

TEST  QUESTIONS   ON   CHAPTER  V. 

1.  Give  a  definition  of  the  principle  of  missions.  Were  the 
early  Baptist  preachers  missionary  in  spirit? 

2.  What  turn  did  this  missionary  spirit  take? 

3.  Tell  of  their  environment  and  lack  of  knowledge  of  needs 
farther  away.  Does  our  present  definition  of  missions 
adequately  represent  the  Great  Commission? 

4.  What  of  their  evangelism?  How  did  they  prove  their 
zeal  ?  What  caused  the  great  Baptist  growth  between  1770 
and  1850?  Give  comparative  advantages  of  Baptists  and 
other  early  Christian  bodies. 

5.  Give  instances  of  the  holy  zeal  of  the  pioneer  Baptist 
preachers.     What  did  the  elder  P.  H.  Mell  say  of  them? 

6.  Describe  how  the  preachers  led  the  churches  into  an 
interest  in  missions.  When  was  the  first  missionary  work 
undertaken  by  an  Association?  What  did  the  workers  of 
an  English  Mission  Society  say  of  the  Baptists  in  Carolina  ? 

7.  Tell  of  the  missionary  work  of  Sandy  Creek  Church. 

8.  What  was  the  prime  organizing  force  in  the  early  Asso- 
ciations?   Did  this  tend  toward  missions? 

9.  To  what  extent  were  the  early  preachers  supported  by 
their  churches  on  their  missionary  tours?  What  effect  did 
the  mission  work  of  the  preachers  have  on  the  churches? 
Tell  of  the  Charleston  Association's  recommendation  about 
missions  in  1755. 

10.  Tell  of  the  wonderful  indirect  result  of  the  Charleston 
resolution.  Show  the  difference  of  the  early  integrating 
principles  of  Southern  and  Northern  Baptists  for  mission 
service. 

11.  Did  the  idea  of  co-operative  mission  work  spread  rapidly 
in  the  Associations?  Describe  the  meeting  of  an  early 
Association. 

12.  Tell  of  movements  toward  mission  work  in  various  As- 
sociations in  the  first  two  decades  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

13.  Tell  of  the  early  missionary  enthusiasm  in  Kentucky  and 
Tennessee. 


MISSIONARY  BEGINNINGS  109 

14.  What  relation  had  the  missionary  to  the  coining  of  co- 
operative organizations?  Did  these  come  without  oppo- 
sition ? 


I  have  never  been  one,  and  God  forbid  I  should  be  one, 
to  disparage  our  Baptist  fathers.  It  is  a  species  of  Pharisa- 
ism that  thanks  God  for  our  superiority  to  the  saints  who 
have  gone  to  glory,  and  which  tells  with  complacency  how 
much  greater  our  achievements  have  been  than  theirs.  We 
can  rightly  thank  God  for  the  grace  given  unto  us,  whereby 
we  have  been  able  to  do  what  we  have  done,  and  we  confess 
not  only  our  own  short  comings,  but  those  of  our  fathers. 
When  Daniel  made  his  great  confession  in  that  beautiful 
prayer  of  his,  he  said:  "We  and  our  fathers  have  sinned." 
Only  after  we  have  confessed  our  own  sins  may  we  confess 
the  sins  of  our  fathers.  It  is  a  more  wholesome  exercise  of 
mind  and  heart  to  consider  the  nobleness  of  the  sainted 
dead,  and  how  we  can  most  faithfully  carry  out  the  trust 
they   have   committed  to  us   under   God. 

Let  us  not  harshly  blame  our  fathers  because  no  mission- 
aries went  out  from  among  them  to  the  heathen.  Looking 
over  the  world  they  saw  no  land  unpolluted  by  the  persecu- 
tion of  their  brethren,  no  river  unstained  by  their  martyrs' 
blood;  they  remembered  that  through  the  centuries  it  had 
required  their  utmost  exertions  to  keep  their  own  people 
supplied  with  preaching,  as  they  trembled  in  the  catacombs 
of  Rome,  or  lay  in  the  forest  among  wild  beasts,  kinder  than 
their  fellowmen;  when  crossing  the  ocean  to  a  land  where 
freedom  reigned  in  the  boastful  words  of  its  people,  they 
found  to  their  sorrow  no  freedom  for  them.  Those  who 
claimed  freedom  for  themselves  drove  Baptists,  maimed, 
beaten,  and  bleeding,  into  the  wilderness.  Think  you  a 
government  which  imprisoned  John  Bunyan  in  Bedford  jail, 
which  whipped  Obadiah  Holmes  on  Boston  Commons,  and 
incarcerated  James  Ireland  in  Culpepper,  Va.,  would  have 
allowed  Baptists  to  organize  to  send  the  gospel  to  the 
heathen?  Let  us  remember  there  was  less  than  a  century 
from  the  cessation  of  persecution,  so  that  Baptist  missionary 
organizations  became  possible,  till  Cary  arose.  When  I  think 
of  all  that  Baptists  have  suffered,  I  do  not  wonder  that 
when  for  the  first  time  in  seventeen  hundred  years  the  woman 
in  the  wilderness  found  a  resting  place  for  her  weary  feet, 
and  gathering  her  true-hearted  sons  about  her  with  none 
to  molest  or  make  them  afraid,  she  was  content  simply  to 
rest,  "the  world  forgetting,  by  the  world  forgotten." — T.  T. 
Eaton,   D.D.,  before  Southern  Baptist   Convention,   1893. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE    CONFLICT    OF    MISSIONS    AND 
ANTI-MISSIONS. 

1.  An  Instructive  Story.  The  story  of  the  war- 
fare of  missions  and  anti-missions  among  Baptists  is 
a  human  document  of  intensely  fascinating  interest. 
Throughout  it  has  been  a  conflict  of  sure-enough 
people,  not  of  the  artificial  people  who  trouble 
first  the  brain  of  the  novelist  and  next  that  of  his 
reader.  It  has  been  a  fight  between  good  people, 
the  Lord's  people.  Earnest  exponents  of  missions 
may  look  askance  at  some  of  the  anti-mission  cham- 
pions. The  sensitive  may  even  feel  hurt  at  the  lurid 
statements  of  some  of  the  spokesmen  for  religious 
do-nothingism.  But  one's  sense  of  humor  should 
save  him.  However  well  we  may  be  satisfied  that 
the  often  shrewd  anti-mission  protagonist  is  dishon- 
est or  wilfully  ignorant,  we  should  remember  that 
the  people  who  follow  him  are  neither  dishonest 
nor  wilfuUy  ignorant,  nor  is  he  always  so.  They  are 
good  people,  but  ignorant  about  the  things  of  the 
Kingdom.  They  are  not  necessarily  ignorant  about 
other  things,  but  disobedient  to  the  Scripture  which 
requires  us  to  be  simple  concerning  the  things  of 
the  flesh  and  wise  concerning  the  things  of  the 
Spirit.  They  are  not  more  ignorant  about  the  things 
of  the  Kingdom  than  many  of  us  would  be  if  we 
had  not  enjoyed  better  opportunities. 


112  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

2.  The  Most  Serious  Fact  about  Anti-Missions. 
The  most  serious  fact  about  the  work  of  the  anti-mis- 
sion guerrillas  of  today  is  not  that  they  should  speak 
things  which  are  untrue  in  order  to  prejudice  un- 
taught Baptists.  The  serious  point  is  that  we,  who 
believe  in  missions  and  who  to  some  extent  support 
missions,  have  not  caught  a  vision  of  the  obligation 
which  rests  upon  us  so  to  instruct  our  untaught 
brother  that  he  shall  not  stumble  in  the  way  when 
some  one  presents  to  him  a  preachment  which  is  at 
once  in  consonance  with  prejudice  and  covetousness 
and  against  the  doctrine  of  co-operative  missionary 
endeavor.  This  failure  shows  an  anti-missionary 
spirit  among  the  supporters  of  missions,  who  have 
had  opportunities  to  know  which  Hardshell  brethren 
have  not  had.  If  we  so  leave  the  bars  of  missionary 
safety  down  as  to  invite  any  stray  opponent  of  prog- 
ress to  come  in  and  trample  down  the  tender  crop, 
what  right  have  we  to  expect  that  some  wayward 
champion  will  not  walk  in?  Of  course  he  will.  Let 
no  hands  of  dismay  and  astonishment  be  held  up; 
rather  let  there  be  bending  of  knees  before  God  in 
humble  confession  that  we  have  not  loved  our 
brother  who  has  not  enjoyed  the  opportunities  we 
have  enjoyed,  suflSciently  to  use  as  a  means  of  help- 
ing him  those  organizations,  which  he  foolishly  fears, 
"teaching  him  to  observe  all  things  whatsoever  our 
Lord  has  commanded."  God  forgive  us  if  in  our 
none-too-warm  devotion  to  missions,  we  have  not  had 
the  heart  to  love  our  less  fortunate  brother  to  the 
point  of  helping  him — which  is  missions! 

3.  The  Years  of  the  Warfare.     The  battle  of 


MISSIONS  AND  ANTI-MISSIONS  113 

missions  against  anti-missions  was  fought  and  the 
victory  won  by  the  missionary  forces  in  the  period 
between  1816  and,  let  us  say  1845,  because  it  gives 
us  a  fine  milestone  in  the  setting  up  then  of  the 
Southern  Baptist  Convention,  though  the  active  con- 
flict ended  a  few  years  earlier.  The  day  was  won 
by  the  minority  because  God  was  on  the  side 
of  the  minority,  on  the  side  of  co-operation  and  of 
faith  in  one's  brethren,  on  the  side  of  love  for  men 
to  the  point  of  sending  the  gospel  to  them,  on  the 
side  of  fellowship  in  service.  The  anti-mission 
champion,  especially  in  the  earlier  days  of  the  con- 
test, did  not  know  he  was  setting  himself  against 
all  these  things,  but  he  was.  He  was  usually  a  real 
Christian,  but  he  was  ignorant  of  what  were  God's 
great  purposes  for  his  people.  When  the  Southern 
Baptist  Convention  was  organized  in  1845,  there  was 
in  effect  set  up  for  our  spiritual  body  throughout 
Dixieland  a  stone  of  witness  between  this  people  and 
God,  that  they  would  follow  him  in  all  the  ways 
of  service  and  world-winning  into  which  he  should 
lead  them.  Already  the  battle  had  been  won  in 
detail  by  the  Baptist  regiments  in  each  of  the  older 
States.  It  was  they  who  bore  the  brunt  of  the  con- 
flict. But  they  came  down  to  Augusta,  Georgia,  in 
1845,  and  unitedly  proclaimed  a  day  of  Baptists  for 
the  Kingdom  and  of  the  Kingdom  for  Baptists.  Let 
us  observantly  go  down  into  the  aforetime  val- 
leys where  was  waged  the  warfare  of  the  mighty 
over  missions  and  anti-missions,  education  and  anti- 
education,  and  organization  and  anti-organization. 


114  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

In  the  conflict  these  three  objects  regularly  fared 
together. 

4.  Causes  of  the  Battle.  The  occasion  of  the 
lining  up  of  pro-  and  anti-mission  parties  in  the 
South  was  the  new  emphasis  which  came  to  be  given 
particularly  to  Foreign  Missions,  through  the  con- 
version of  Judson  to  Baptist  views  and  the  sub- 
sequent activities  in  the  South  of  the  Triennial  Con- 
vention's agents  to  arouse  interest  in  Foreign  Mis- 
sions, first  among  whom  was  Luther  Rice.  The 
causes  of  the  opposition  lay  deeper.  Chief  among 
these  were  extreme  jealousy  for  democracy  and  hy- 
per-Calvinism. In  addition  to  this  the  provincialism 
of  the  people  and  the  fact  that  the  leading  ex- 
ponents of  the  new  ideas  were  from  the  outside 
or  of  the  more  distinguished  local  men,  who  often 
had  little  intimate  association  with  the  rank  and 
file  of  the  people,  did  much  to  stiffen  the  opposition. 

5.  The  "Aristocracy."  It  is  inevitable  that  new 
ideas  shall  excite  opposition  among  the  masses  of 
the  people  until  they  shall  see  those  ideas  embodied 
and  set  forth  by  their  own  known  and  trusted 
leaders,  rather  than  by  some  celebrated  stranger, 
whom  they  know  only  through  the  big  address  which 
he  made  on  some  signal  occasion  at  one  of  their 
assembles.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  such  opposition  at- 
tends the  promulgation  of  new  ideas  among  our 
churches  even  today,  when  the  means  of  knowledge 
are  many  times  greater.  With  the  disadvantage  of 
having  strangers  as  its  principal  sponsors,  the  For- 
eign Mission  propaganda  had  also  that  of  being 
to  the  people  an  exceedingly  far-off  thing,  almost 


MISSIONS  AND  ANTI-MISSIONS  115 

an  abstraction.  There  were  almost  no  religious 
papers  and  almost  no  mail  facilities,  a  considerable 
portion  of  the  church  members  could  not  read  or 
write.  It  would  have  been  a  remarkable  thing  if 
opposition  had  not  developed.  It  is  gratifying  that 
the  new  and  larger  idea  was  received  in  so  many- 
places  into  good  soil,  which  brought  forth  fruitfully. 
It  was  not  really  strange  that  men  who  rejoiced  in 
salvation  and  in  seeing  others  saved  and  were  even 
zealous  in  spreading  the  good  news,  should  find 
themselves  in  doubt  about  the  new  move  to  avan- 
gelize  heathen  nations,  of  which  many  of  them  had 
never  even  heard.  They  were  so  busy  trying  to  sup- 
ply the  abounding  local  needs,  that  this  blessed  pre- 
occupation in  part  insulated  them  from  the  percep- 
tion of  other  needs.  In  order  to  do  justice  to  these 
early  Baptists  we  must  put  ourselves  in  their  places. 
If  we  do  this,  we  will  not  feel  like  criticising  them, 
though  we  may  find  it  difl&cult  to  extend  a  like  char- 
ity to  some  of  the  rabid  men  who  during  a  later 
period  became  leaders  of  the  anti-mission  idea. 

6.  Jealousy  for  Democracy.  Perhaps  the  idea 
which  more  nearly  obsessed  our  Baptist  fathers  than 
anything  else  was  Democracy.  Baptists  are  today 
jealous  of  democracy  and  none  too  much  so.  But 
we  have  learned  much  which  our  fathers  did  not 
and  could  not  know  about  how  democracy  may  co- 
operate through  organizations  and  yet  safeguard  it- 
self. Those  early  Baptists  had  no  demonstration 
that  there  may  be  preservation  of  democracy  and  at 
the  same  time  an  increase  of  fraternity  and  effi- 
ciency in  co-operative  organization.    But  they  had 


116  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

had  never-to-be-forgotten  experiences  of  how  secu- 
lar and  ecclesiastical  organizations  may  become  op- 
presive  and  iniquitous.  Therefore  their  jealousy. 
We  honor  them  for  it.  It  may  be  well  enough  to 
smile  at  a  Baptist  church  now  which  shies  at  so 
simple  a  matter  as  joining  a  District  Association,  lest 
that  body  should  interfere  with  its  autonomy,  but 
it  was  not  a  smiling  matter  one  hundred  years  ago. 
True,  the  Associations  had  not  been  found  guilty, 
but  neither  had  they  yet  to  the  satisfaction  of 
those  pioneer  individualists  proven  their  innocence. 
7.  Associations  and  Democracy.  For  the  first 
century  after  the  old  Charleston  Association  was 
formed,  perhaps  there  was  no  one  idea  which  was 
more  often  elucidated  in  connection  with  the  forma- 
tion of  Baptist  Associations  than  that  they  did  not 
in  any  way  interfere  with  the  autonomy  of  the  local 
churches.  Not  only  so;  the  idea  was  everywhere 
nailed  down  through  resolutions  or  in  the  organic 
law.  One  of  the  first  acts  of  the  Charleston  Asso- 
ciation at  its  first  meeting  was  to  assert  the  inde- 
pendency of  the  churches  and  to  announce  the  re- 
strictions of  its  own  powers  to  counsel  and  advice. 
Virginia  Baptist  churches  were  perhaps  even  more 
scrupulous  than  others  on  this  point  and  Semple 
shows  how  jealousy  lest  the  Associations  should  go 
beyond  their  advisory  and  fraternal  functions,  led  to 
repeated  disavowals  on  the  part  of  those  bodies. 
This  same  zeal  for  democracy  made  many  of  the 
Associations  hesitate  at  a  later  date  to  join  the  State 
Convention  or  General  Association.  In  Kentucky  it 
defeated  the  first  State  organization.    In  Alabama 


MISSIONS  AND  ANTI-MISSIONS  117 

it  kept  the  infant  State  body  in  anxiety  and  weak- 
ness to  such  an  extent  that  after  ten  years,  at  the 
1833  meeting,  it  had  only  four  delegates.  In  Ten- 
nessee and  Maryland  it  retarded  the  general  organi- 
zation, and  in  North  and  South  Carolina  and  Vir- 
ginia for  a  period  it  limited  the  popularity  and  pow- 
er of  the  State  body. 

8.  Democracy  and  Missions.  These  pioneer 
preachers  of  the  South  had  done  an  itinerant  mis- 
sionary work  never  surpassed  in  history.  The 
churches  had  gradually  come  to  participate  in  their 
work  and  to  support  the  workers.  Even  the  prin- 
ciple of  co-operative  organization  for  missions 
through  various  Associations  was  in  effective  opera- 
tion, notwithstanding  an  extreme  concern  for 
church  independence.  This  was  fine  progress.  Then 
came  Judson.  This  resulted  in  an  appeal  through- 
out the  South  for  the  Associations  to  join  in  the  co- 
operative support  of  missions  in  India.  It 
was  like  telling  a  man  who  has  just  learned 
to  spell  ** baker"  that  he  must  at  once  begin 
to  spell  only  words  of  length  of  **  incompre- 
hensibility."  It  was  strong  doctrine.  We  ad- 
mire the  faith  of  those  early  preachers  in  their 
hearty  advocacy,  but  we  may  be  pardoned  if  we 
question  the  tact  and  statesmanship  some  of  them 
showed  before  the  conflict  was  over.  In  Kentucky, 
for  instance,  instead  of  patient  dealing  with  a  con- 
stituency which  was  really  taking  hold  of  evangel- 
ism, of  which  Foreign  Missions  is  only  an  extension, 
with  more  rapidity  than  any  other  in  the  South, 
some  of  the  enthusiasts  formed    Mission    Societies 


118  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

which  were  independent  of  the  churches.  This  ap- 
pears to  have  been  the  first  thing  which  started  the 
anti-mission  revulsion  in  Kentucky. 

9.  Good  Men  Feared  Centralization.  As  good  and 
great  a  preacher  as  John  Leland,  himself  for  years 
a  missionary  of  holy  fervor  and  unsparing  labors 
in  Virginia,  and  a  man  of  undoubted  wisdom,  looked 
with  disfavor  upon  the  proposed  organizations  for 
Foreign  Missions,  lest  they  should  result  in  a  fatal 
centralization.  He  declined  to  itinerate  under  the 
support  of  a  Baptist  Missionary  Society  in  Massa- 
chusetts, and  in  1826  wrote  a  friend:  "What  the 
new  order  of  missionary  friends  and  exertions  will 
do,  I  cannot  say;  whether  there  is  goodness  enough 
in  men  to  be  pampered  without  growing  indolent 
and  haughty  is  a  question.  But  the  captive  Israelites 
who  lived  on  pulse  were  fresher,  fatter,  and  ten  times 
better  in  counsel  than  the  vulgar  bred  priests  in 
the  realm  of  Babylon  who  lived  on  a  royal  portion 
of  meat  and  wine. ' '  There  were  few  nobler  frontier 
missionaries  than  John  Taylor  of  Kentucky.  He 
had  preached  the  gospel  from  house  to  house,  county 
to  county  and  State  to  State,  and  yet  the  new 
Mission  Societies  frightened  John  Taylor.  Dr.  Spen- 
cer quotes  him  as  saying:  "I  consider  these  great 
men  are  verging  close  on  an  aristocracy,  with  an 
object  to  sap  the  foundation  of  Baptist  republican 
government."  Down  in  Alabama,  Rev.  "Club  Ax" 
Davis,  whose  nick-name  was  made  by  himself,  was  a 
missionary  itinerant  who  never  spared  himself  or 
the  frontier  sinner  and  through  whom  many  souls 
were  brought  to  Christ,  but  he  was  at  the  same  time 


MISSIONS  AND  ANTI-MISSIONS  119 

uncompromising  in  his  opposition  to  co-operative 
missionary  effort.  There  were  such  men  in  every 
State.  It  is  unfortunate  that  we  have  not  preserved 
the  records  of  more  of  them.  They  are  not  to  be 
confounded  with  men  who  at  a  later  time  became 
anti-mission  champions,  when  they  thought  it  a  good 
political  move  to  do  so. 

10.  Hyper-Calvinism.  Hyper-Calvinism  led  some 
Baptists  to  their  early  opposition  to  missions.  The 
Methodists  were  everywhere  preaching  salvation  by 
works.  The  tendency  was  to  drive  Baptists  far  to- 
ward the  other  extreme  of  predestination.  Not  a 
few  of  the  fathers  considered  it  an  interference  with 
the  divine  prerogative  to  do  so  unheard  of  a  thing 
as  to  send  the  gospel  to  heathen  nations.  Small 
wonder.  So  did  the  big  English  preacher  who 
sought  to  squelch  "William  Carey.  The  Saluda  As- 
sociation was  meeting  at  Flat  Rock  Church,  Ander- 
son County,  South  Carolina,  in  1836.  The  church 
letters  and  "Letters  of  Correspondence"  with  other 
Associations  were  at  last  disposed  of,  as  were  also 
the  various  and  sundry  questions  of  doctrine  and 
polity,  sent  up  from  the  churches  for  early  Associa- 
tions to  try  their  teeth  on.  Came  Sunday  morning, 
the  first  of  August,  the  great  day  of  the  feast,  with 
its  large  throng  scattered  down  through  the  grove, 
across  the  "big  road"  and  on  the  big  rock,  to  the 
branch  where  under  the  dense  forest  canopy  a  cool 
spring  bubbled  up  to  slake  the  pioneer  Baptist 
thirst.  At  the  stand  Rev.  Sanford  Vandiver  preach- 
ed the  "charity  sermon."  In  it  he  appealed  for 
money  to  help  publish  Judson's  translation  of  the 


120  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

Burmese  Bible.  While  lie  was  speaking  with  elo- 
quence and  inspiration,  a  tall,  gangling  anti-mission- 
ary preacher  was  seen  to  leave  his  seat  up  on  the 
stand  with  the  dozen  or  more  other  preachers,  pit 
on  his  hat,  gather  up  and  toss  across  his  arm  his 
saddle-bags  and  start  high-stepping  toward  the  for- 
est side,  within  which  his  horse  was  tethered.  In 
the  outskirts  of  the  listening  throng  a  brother  hailed 
him:  "Why,  Brother  Blank,  what  in  the  world  is 
the  matter?"  "Matter!"  replied  the  stalwart  man 
of  God.  "Just  listen  at  Sanford;  preaching  salva- 
tion to  the  Gentiles.  I'll  never  again  listen  to  any 
such  a  preacher."  The  writer  was  born  in  Saluda 
Association,  within  a  few  miles  of  Flat  Rock  Church, 
which  he  often  attended  in  his  childhood.  The 
churches  of  Saluda  Association  now  give  more  to 
missions  than  those  of  any  other  Association  in  South 
Carolina ! 

11.  When  Fighting  Was  "Good."  Fighting  is 
always  an  evidence  of  human  sin  and  infirmity.  But 
there  come  times  when  good  men  ought  to  and  must 
fight.  Of  the  Baptists  at  this  period  Dr.  B.  F.  Riley 
says:  "Their  boldly  aggressive  spirit  arose,  first, 
from  mistaking  the  spirit  of  resistance  which  Vir- 
ginia Baptists  had  shown  toward  the  State  Church. 
They  held  on  to  the  ginger  without  the  spirit,  and 
applied  the  ginger  everywhere.  Second,  they  felt 
that  they  were  right,  and  where  aggravated  by  con- 
stant attacks  from  other  religious  protagonists,  espe- 
cially Methodists,  who  had  as  much  of  the  disputa- 
tious spirit  of  pioneer  conditions  as  the  Baptists 
had."     Beginning  before    the  end    of  the  second 


MISSIONS  AND  ANTI-MISSIONS  121 

decade  of  the  last  century  and  smouldering  into  an 
open  flame  in  some  places  by  1825  and  at  others 
during  the  next  ten  to  fifteen  years,  the 
mission  and  anti-mission  parties  had  a  conflict  which 
was  not  without  much  bitterness  and  prejudice.  The 
prejudice  was  mainly  among  the  anti-missionaries 
and  the  bitterness  almost  entirely  so.  But  it  should 
be  said  that  the  advocates  of  missions  were  not 
perfect  before  the  Lord  in  all  the  things  which  they 
did.  They  were  right  on  the  great  issue  of  missions 
and  they  often  showed  a  commendable  moderation 
in  dealing  with  opponents  who  were  glaringly  de- 
ficient in  moderation.  But  from  the  vantage  of  the 
present  it  seems  that  if  they  had  had  more  of  pa- 
tience and  long-suffering,  more  appreciation  of  the 
limitations  and  lack  of  instruction  which  led  the 
anti-missionaries  into  their  errors,  they  could  have 
won  many  of  them  who  were  driven  into  open  op- 
position. If  they  were  lacking  here,  they  were  hardly 
more  so  than  we  are  now.  But  they  should 
not  have  been  surprised  that  so  large  a  body  of 
men  and  women,  with  their  restricted  and  contracted 
ideas,  and  whose  lives  were  almost  entirely  pioneer 
and  local,  could  not  be  brought  over  night  to  go 
further  forward  in  missionary  work  than  the  whole 
body  had  advanced  within  fifty  years,  though  it  had 
made  marvelous  progress  within  that  time. 

12.  The  "Club- Ax"  Anti-Missionaries.  In  gen- 
eral the  methods  of  the  anti-missionary  preachers 
would  justify  giving  their  class  the  cognomen  which 
Davis  of  Alabama  had  given  himself.  When  most 
of  these  men  advanced  to  the  fray,  it  was  with  utter 


122  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

abandon  and  with  wild-cat  catch-as-catch-can  meth- 
ods. In  a  day  of  individualism  and  wildwoods  ora- 
tory, these  doughty  champions  were  in  their  glory. 
On  their  side  they  had  the  advantage  of  the  general 
ignorance  about  missions  and  the  natural  prejudices 
of  the  people.  With  a  shrewdness  worthy  of  a  bet- 
ter cause,  they  caricatured  their  antagonists.  Dr. 
B.  F.  Riley,  who  in  History  of  Baptists  in  the 
South  and  elsewhere  has  given  us  the  best  extant 
story  of  the  conflict,  quotes  one  of  these  champions 
as  follows:  *'Do  not,"  vociferated  he  to  his  audi- 
ence, *'do  not  forget  the  enemy  [the  missionaries] ; 
bear  them  in  mind ;  the  howling,  destructive  wolves, 
the  ravenous  dogs  and  the  filthy,  and  their  numerous 
whelps.  By  a  minute  observation  and  the  consulta- 
tion of  the  sacred,  never-failing,  descriptive  chart, 
even  their  physiognomy  in  dress,  mien  and  carriage, 
and  many  other  indented,  indelible,  descriptive 
marks,  too  tedious  at  present  to  mention.  The  wolf- 
ish smell  is  enough  to  alarm,  to  create  suspicion,  and 
to  ascertain.  The  dogs'  teeth  are  noted,  and  the 
wolves  for  their  peculiar  and  distinct  howl,"  etc. 
etc.,  etc.,  etc.  Such  a  fellow  can  go  on  as  long  as 
any  one  remains  to  hear  him  bellow. 

13.  Alexander  Campbell.  Baptists  in  the  South 
had  received  great  aid  from  George  Whitfield,  who 
was  a  Presbyterian.  They  now  received  great  in- 
jury from  Alexander  Campbell,  who  had  been  a 
Presbyterian,  but  who  left  them  to  make  a  new  cult 
of  his  own.  He  entered  into  the  Baptist  situation 
about  1823.  If  Mr.  Campbell  had  organized  his  cult 
with  the  specific  purpose  of  catching  the  backward 


MISSIONS   AND  ANTI-MISSIONS  123 

Baptists  of  that  day,  he  could  scarcely  have  done  it 
better.     They  believed  in  Bible  baptism  as  an  act 
of  obedience.    Mr.  Campbell  went  further;  baptism 
was  essential  to  salvation.    They  had  a  penchant  for 
contention  over  Scripture  teaching;  Mr.  Campbell 
more  so.     They  were  jealous  for  democracy;  Mr. 
Campbell  became  more  jealous,  showing  how  mis- 
sion Societies,  Boards,  etc.,  would  enslave  both  them 
and  their  children.    They  held  the  Bible  to  be  the 
only  rule  of  faith;  Mr.  Campbell  conjured  up  new 
and  spectacular  ways  to  convince  them  that  he  was 
really  the  only  original,  full-length  believer  in  this 
teaching.    The  great  untaught  majority  of  them  did 
not  believe  in  missions ;  they  were  right,  averred  Mr. 
Campbell.    He  believed  in  Bible  missions,  but  not  So- 
ciety missions.    The  money  was  used,  he  declared,  to 
pamper  indulgent  and  lazy  preachers.    He  bethought 
himself  that  he  would  have  to  find  an  answer  to  the 
implications  of  the  Bible  record  of  Paul's  mission 
work.    So  he  said  Paul  had  the  gift  of  performing 
miracles,  and  there  was  no  record  in  the  Bible  of 
mission  work  without  the  power  of  miracles.     We 
have  not  the  power  of  miracles,  so  good-bye  missions. 
14.    The  Setback  Which  Followed.    We  are  not 
here  concerned  about  the  amazing  fact  that  quite  a 
large  and  respected  religious  body  in  America  had 
its  origin  from  such  contentions  as  are  indicated  in 
the   preceding  paragraph.     But  these   contentions, 
maintained  with  astuteness,  were  one  of  the  strong- 
est deterrents  to  the  growth  of    missions    among 
Southern  Baptists.     Kentucky  Baptists  were  torn 
and  lacerated  by  Campbell's  false  views.    Anti-mis- 


124  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

sion  views  spread  like  fire  before  wind.  It  was  years, 
and  only  after  sloughing  off  the  most  extreme  anti- 
mission  wing,  before  Kentucky  Baptists  again  moved 
forward  in  their  constructive  program.  The  Camp- 
bellism  infection  also  wrought  sad  havoc  in  Tennes- 
see and  Alabama.  In  lesser  degree  it  gave  a  setback 
to  mission  progress  in  all  the  other  Southern  States. 

15.  Missions  Won.  After  about  1840  the  anti- 
mission  agitation  was  no  longer  able  to  do  any  great 
harm  to  the  Baptist  organizations,  which  had  turned 
their  faces  toward  service.  Many  of  the  men  who 
had  formerly  opposed  organized  co-operation  to  save 
men,  were  led  to  see  the  error  of  their  way.  The 
leadership  of  the  anti-mission  forces  was  henceforth 
to  be  only  of  good  men  who  were  sadly  deficient 
in  knowledge,  and  of  a  few  unscrupulous  men  who 
were  not  ignorant.  The  day  of  intercommunication 
and  co-operation  was  gradually  encroaching  on  the 
preserves  of  localism  and  individualism.  The  coun- 
try was  moving  forward  and  the  Baptists  were  well 
up  with  the  vanguard,  demonstrating  that  a  religious 
democracy  can  develop  in  efficiency,  notwithstand- 
ing all  the  ignorance  and  suspicion  which  it  has 
to  enlighten  or  overcome. 

16.  A  Plea  for  Our  Belated  Brethren.  There  are 
perhaps  in  1915  200,000  Baptists  in  the  South  who, 
under  the  names  of  Primitive,  Hardshell  or  Free 
Will  Baptists,  are  frankly  opposed  to  missions.  Be- 
sides these  there  are  at  least  several  hundred 
churches  counted  in  our  Southern  Baptist  Conven- 
tion statistics,  which  are  really  anti-missionary  in 
belief!    The  question  is  here  raised  if  we  have  not 


MISSIONS  AND  ANTI-MISSIONS  125 

an  obligation  to  the  belated  brethren,  to  win  them 
to  larger  and  truer  views.  We  can  win  them,  if  we 
will  show  that  we  love  them  and  desire  to  help  them. 
Practically  there  is  not  enough  difference  between 
us  and  them  to  justify  us  in  complacency.  They 
say  they  do  not  believe  in  missions,  and  consistently 
give  nothing  to  missions.  We  say  we  do  believe  in 
missions,  but  after  all  these  years  of  training,  we 
are  in  the  Southern  Convention  averaging  about 
sixty  cents  per  member  for  all  kinds  of  missions. 
The  practical  difference  between  us  and  the  Hard- 
shell brother  is  only  a  difference  of  five  cents  per 
month  per  member!  Of  immeasurable  worth  are 
our  vast  organizations  and  our  churches  committed  in 
principle  and  doctrine  to  missions,  but  the  smallness 
of  our  actual  average  individual  gifts  may  well 
make  us  modest.  There  is  something  about  the  little 
anti-mission  church  in  the  mountain  cove  or  out 
in  the  piney  woods  that  ought  particularly  to  draw 
our  love  and  helpfulness.  They  and  we  hold  many 
precious  beliefs  together  and  we  do  not  differ  as 
much  as  we  ought  on  the  chief  points  in  which 
we  do  differ. 

17.  How  He  Won  Them.  Anti-mission  churches 
have  often  been  won  by  men  who  have  had  the  tact 
and  the  consecrated  good  sense  to  go  about  it.  Dr. 
T.  M.  Bailey,  veteran  ex-State  Secretary,  now  of 
Greenville,  South  Carolina,  won  many  such  churches 
in  his  secretarial  service  in  Alabama  and  South 
Carolina,  and  so  have  other  State  Secretaries. 
Two  years  ago,  while  he  was  on  a  trip  through  the 
Great  Smoky  Mountains  in  Tennessee,  Dr.  Albert 


126  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

E.  Brown,  Superintendent  of  Mountain  Mission 
Schools  of  the  Home  Mission  Board,  found  that  a 
Hardshell  Baptist  church  was  holding  a  series  of 
services  in  a  school  house.  Superintendent  Brown 
decided  to  attend  the  meeting.  Preaching  was  in 
progress  when  he  entered  the  room  and  he  took  a 
seat  near  the  rear  of  the  building.  At  once  he  dis- 
covered that  his  presence  had  aroused  much  interest 
among  the  worshippers.  They  thought  he  was  a 
Presbyterian  missionary.  The  preacher  exhorted 
long  and  earnestly.  When  he  finished,  he  called 
upon  the  senior  pastor  to  "follow,"  in  the  old-time 
way.  The  elder  preacher  proceeded  to  improve  the 
occasion  by  making  certain  adroit  doctrinal  swipes 
for  the  edification  of  the  supposed  Presbyterian 
preacher.  After  finishing  his  exhortation,  the  old 
man  led  the  service  toward  its  close  by  saying :  "If 
all  minds  are  clear,  we  will  be  dismissed."  Where- 
upon Dr.  Brown  arose  and  said:  "Brother,  all 
minds  are  not  clear,  and  if  you  have  no  objection 
I  would  like  to  make  a  statement."  The  elder  re- 
plied: "I  don't  know  as  I  have  any  objections." 
Brother  Brown  walked  to  the  platform,  told  them 
his  name,  and  where  he  lived,  and  continued: 
"Brethren,  I  am  a  Baptist  and  you  are  Baptists. 
You  are  therefore  my  folks.  We  may  not  see  alike 
on  all  matters,  nevertheless,  being  a  Baptist,  I  am 
your  brother.  Moreover,  I  am  a  mountaineer  and 
you  are  mountaineers  and  that  makes  us  still  closer 
kin."  Then  he  proceeded  to  tell  them  that  he  was 
building  schools  for  mountain  boys  and  girls.  Their 
surprise  was  great  and  they  were  pleased.    The  old 


MISSIONS  AND   ANTI-MISSIONS  127 

pastor  asked  Dr.  Brown  to  preach  for  them  that 
afternoon  and  he  consented. 

18.  "He  Got  It  out  of  the  Book."  That  after- 
noon Dr.  Brown  preached  on  missions,  Sunday- 
schools,  education,  and  pastoral  support,  doing  it 
with  tact  and  without  exciting  needless  antagonism. 
Then  the  senior  pastor  said:  "Brother,  there  will 
be  a  big  crowd  here  tomorrow.  Can't  you  preach 
for  us  again?"  So  on  Sunday  morning  Dr.  Brown 
preached  again  on  missions,  Sunday-schools,  educa- 
tion, and  pastoral  support.  When  he  was  through 
he  called  on  the  old  Hardshell  pastor  to  conclude 
the  services,  which  he  did  in  the  following  address : 
"Brethren,  Bro.  Brown  is  a  Baptist,  as  you  all  can 
see,  though  not  our  kind  of  a  Baptist.  He  has 
proved  to  us  out  of  the  Book  [for  Dr.  Brown  had 
given  them  chapter  and  verse  for  every  contention] 
everything  that  he  has  said  today,  and  we  can't 
git  around  it,  for  he  got  it  out  of  the  Book,  and, 
brethren,  I  endorse  it."  Another  brother  arose  and 
said:  "We  will  meet  here  next  Sunday  morning 
and  establish  a  Sunday-school."  One  tactful  ap- 
proach by  a  man  who  understood  and  loved  the 
people  put  that  church  and  community  on  the  up- 
ward path  and  transformed  the  church  from  a  Hard- 
shell to  a  Missionary  Baptist  church.  Throughout 
the  South  are  hundreds  of  opportunities  to  render  a 
like  service,  opportunities  which  Baptists  cannot  af- 
ford to  neglect. 

TEST  QUESTIONS  ON   CHAPTER  VI. 
1.    Give  a  reason  why  the  story  of  the  conflict  of  missions 


128  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

and    anti-missions   is   interesting.     Were   the    early    anti- 
mission  Baptists  wilfully  ignorant? 

2.  Name  the  most  serious  fact  about  anti-missions.  If  we 
leave  the  people  untaught,  should  we  be  surprised  when 
some  wayward  champion  misleads  them?  In  what  spirit 
should  we  approach  this  question? 

3.  When  was  the  warfare  at  its  strongest?  What  did  Baptists 
in  effect  announce  when  they  set  up  the  Southern  Con- 
vention ? 

4.  Give  the  occasions  and  the  causes  of  the  anti-mission 
conflict. 

5.  How  did  the  masses  of  the  people  view  the  distinguished 
spokesman  of  Foreign  Missions?  Tell  of  the  small  oppor- 
tunities the  people  had  to  be  informed  of  missionary  needs. 

6.  Describe  the  early  Baptist  jealousy  for  local  church 
autonomy. 

7.  Did  zeal  for  church  autonomy  retard  the  formation  of 
District  Associations?  What  idea  was  incorporated  in  the 
constitutions  of  all  Baptist  co-operative  organizations? 
Did  jealousy  for  the  independence  of  the  churches  retard 
the  organization  of  State  bodies?  Give  the  experience  of 
different  States. 

8.  Describe  the  effect  of  the  agitation  for  Foreign  Missions 
which  followed  Judson's  going  to  India.  What  tactical 
mistake  did  Kentucky  make? 

9.  Tell  of  the  fear  of  centralization  as  expressed  by  John 
Leland,  John  Taylor,  and  "Club-Ax"  Davis. 

10.  Show  how  hyper-Calvinism  worked  against  missions. 
Tell  of  the  result  of  Sanford  Vandiver  preaching  on  mis- 
sions at  Saluda  Association  in  1836. 

11.  Quote  Dr.  B.  F.  Riley  on  reasons  for  the  fire  of  the 
conflict.  When  did  it  come  to  be  an  open  flame?  Tell 
why  patience  becomes  the  Baptist  advocates  of  missions. 

12.  Give  an  instance  of  the  wild  utterances  of  the  anti-mission 
defenders. 

13.  Carefully  describe  the  shrewd  way  in  which  Alexander 
Campbell   did  great  harm  to  untaught  Baptists. 

14.  What  was  the  result  of  the  Campbell  onslaught? 


MISSIONS   AND   ANTI-MISSIONS  129 

15.  Tell  when  and  how  missions  won  the  day. 

16.  Tell  of  anti-mission  Baptists  now  in  the  South.  What  is 
the  practical  difference  in  giving  between  them  and  Mis- 
sionary Baptists?     What  of  the  difference  in  principles? 

17.  Can  the  Hardshell  Baptists  be  won  to  progress  and  mis- 
sions? Tell  of  Superintendent  Brown's  visit  to  a  Hard- 
shell church  in  the  Highlands. 

18.  Tell  of  the  Hardshell  pastor's  surrender  when  shown 
that  the  Bible  teaches  missions.  Have  we  an  obligation 
to  teach  our  Hardshell  brethren? 


Missions  in  America  deal  not  with  culminations,  but  with 
beginnings.  Its  function  is  not  to  sing  the  triumph  song  of 
harvest,  but  to  sweat  with  the  labor  of  the  days  of  plowing 
and  planting.  It  must  fall  into  the  ground  and  die,  to  the 
end  that  others  afterward  may  reap  thirty  and  sixty  and  one 
hundred  fold.  By  its  very  nature  missions  works  in  the  day 
of  small  things.  Materially,  it  has  no  beauty  that  it  should 
be  desired.  It  wears  no  glamor  of  earthly  glory.  It  has  no 
gala  day.  It  hears  no  worldly  applause.  The  loneliness  of 
the  picket  line  and  the  poverty  of  the  pioneer  are  the  cross 
and  the  crown  of  its  daily  life.  But  this  is  fundamental  to 
the  progress  of  the  Kingdom.  Churches  do  not  spring  forth 
full  grown  by  the  fiat  of  the  Almighty.  It  is  a  Kingdom 
of  Life  and  it  comes  by  the  normal  operation  of  the  laws  of 
life.  It  is  first  the  grain  of  mustard,  smallest  of  all  seeds, 
but  growing  until  the  birds  of  heaven  find  a  home  in  its 
branches.  It  is  first  the  blade  and  then  the  ear  and  after- 
wards the  full  corn  in  the  ear. 

The  advance  of  the  Kingdom  is  along  the  line  of  the  weak, 
struggling,  little  churches — monuments  of  the  faith  and  hero- 
ism of  men  and  women  who  believe  the  promises  of  God — 
outposts  pushed  across  the  line  of  the  Usurper's  domain — 
the  advance  guard  of  the  Kingdom.  I  see  it  yonder — the 
little  church  at  the  front — plain  and  bare — no  artistic  beauty — 
no  glory  in  the  eyes  of  the  world— but  it  is  Bethel,  the  House 
of  God,  the  Gate  of  Heaven.  Immortal  souls  out  there  where 
life  is  hard,  passing  through  into  the  City  of  God.  If  so 
be  that  the  gates  of  the  City  are  pearls,  then  yonder  humble 
little  chapel  is  one  of  God's  jewels,  and  the  keeper  of  the 
gate  not  only  a  shepherd  of  the  scattered  sheep  of  today, 
but  a  herald  at  the  front  proclaiming  the  coming  of  the 
King.— A.  G.  Jones,  D.D. 


CHAPTER  VII. 
ORGANIZATION  OF  STATE  BODIES. 

1.  A  Remarkable  Achievement.  The  establish- 
ment among  Baptists  of  the  South  within  the  last 
century  of  an  efficient  and  well  articulated  system 
of  denominational  organizations,  was  a  remarkable 
achievement.  It  is  to  be  remembered  that  no  Scrip- 
ture teaching  directly  commanded  these  organiza- 
tions. The  germ  of  organization  for  service  may  be 
found  among  the  early  churches,  but  it  did  not 
make  a  clear  appeal  to  our  pioneer  sires.  Fearful  of 
centralization,  with  almost  no  experience  except  in 
Virginia  in  the  helpfulness  of  co-operative  effort, 
restrained  by  a  conservatism  common  to  all  times 
and  an  abounding  individualism  which  was  a  char- 
acteristic product  of  their  own  faith  and  time,  yet 
these  early  Baptists  moved  forward  toward  an  or- 
ganized denominational  life  as  if  drawn  by  some 
inner  necessity  beyond  their  own  understanding. 
Local  church  independence  was  their  shibboleth. 
Perhaps  nine-tenths  of  them  looked  upon  a  State 
Convention  with  indifference,  while  many  regarded 
it  a  dangerous  innovation  and  were  more  or  less 
doubtful  even  about  Associations.  Yet  Associations 
had  sprung  up  in  every  State  and  by  the  end  of  the 
second  decade  of  the  nineteenth  century  the  day  of 
the  State  Convention  and  General  Association  was 
come  to  its  dawning.     A  study  of  our  people  in 


182  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

connection  with  the  growth  from  the  rank  indi- 
vidualism and  democracy  of  1800  to  their  far-reach- 
ing organized  life  of  1915,  cannot  but  convince  the 
student  that  the  hand  of  God  has  brought  them 
into  their  present  advanced  efficiency.  The  Spirit 
of  God  and  their  own  good  sense  and  plenteous 
spirit  of  Christian  fellowship  have  led  Southern  Bap- 
tists to  form  their  denominational  organizations. 

2.  Centrality  of  State  Organization.  In  their 
denominational  life  the  State  bodies  of  Southern 
Baptists  are  central.  The  prime  thought  of  the 
fathers  in  organizing  District  Associations  was  fel- 
lowship, but  the  chief  intent  which  led  to  the  State 
organization  was  service.  With  the  internal  needs  of 
its  own  commonwealth  first  in  its  heart,  the  State 
Convention  or  Association  from  the  first  also  looked 
outward  toward  Samaria  and  the  uttermost  part,  and 
promptly  set  this  concern  for  the  whole  lost  world 
down  in  its  Constitution,  except  when  it  thought 
this  statement  would  offend  some  of  the  swarming 
anti-missionariesi  beyond  measure  whom  the  Con- 
vention hoped  to  win.  With  the  District  Associa- 
tion fellowship  and  mutual  edification  was  the  or- 
ganizing force,  though  it  was  inevitable  that  out 
of  the  godly  nature  of  this  fellowship  would  spring 
missions  and  service.  The  State  body  is  central  in 
our  Southern  Baptist  scheme  of  co-operative  organi- 
zation, because  in  it  heads  up  the  on-going  force  of 
the  churches,  the  common  needs  and  purposes  of 
which  it  serves  with  an  understanding  that  no  body 
can  possibly  have  that  is  farther  removed,  and 
which  at  the  same  time  it  marshalls  for  the  great 


ORGANIZATION  OF  STATE  BODIES  133 

tasks  of  the  general  organization  of  the  denomina- 
tion. The  biggest  things  which  Southern  Baptists 
have  are  their  General  Boards  and  their  work.  But 
none  of  these  agencies  is  so  essential  to  Southern 
Baptists  as  are  the  seventeen  State  bodies.  These 
bodies  are  in  turn  outranked  in  aggregate  impor- 
tance as  representative  Baptist  bodies  by  the  900 
District  Associations  and  the  Associations  by  the 
24,500  churches.  In  the  simple  but  adequate 
system  of  organizations  by  which  Southern  Baptists 
combine  for  co-operative  Kingdom  service,  the  State 
Convention  fills  a  crucial  and  indispensable  place. 

3.  A  Logical  Evolution.  Logically  in  the  evolu- 
tion of  Baptist  co-operative  organizations,  the  Dis- 
trict Association  should  come  first  and  the  State 
Association  or  Convention  next.  This  is  what  hap- 
pened in  the  South.  In  every  State  the  general  or- 
ganization of  Baptists  followed  the  formation  of  a 
number  of  Associations.  Also  the  call  for  the  State 
organizations  found  its  expression  through  the  As- 
sociations, though  not  all  of  them  participated  in  the 
call.  Logically  the  general  Convention  of  the  de- 
nomination should  be  initiated  through  State  bodies, 
which  have  already  arrived  at  a  degree  of  stability. 
This  is  what  happened  in  the  formation  of  the 
Southern  Baptist  Convention.  At  the  time  of  its 
organization  there  were  ten  State  Baptist  bodies  in 
the  South,  from  six  to  twenty-four  years  old.  This 
is  what  had  not  happened  in  the  case  of  the  Tri- 
ennial Convention,  organized  in  1814.  That  body 
organized  as  a  National  Baptist  Convention,  but  its 
members  came  from  a  variety  of  sources,  largely  on 


184  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

a  financial  basis.  There  were  only  three  State  Bap- 
tist Conventions  in  America  when  the  Triennial  Con- 
vention was  organized.  There  was  no  dependable 
educational  and  inspirational  intermediary  between 
it  and  the  great  mass  of  our  Baptist  churches. 
Partly  for  this  reason  the  Triennial  Convention  came 
to  grief.  It  was  too  removed  from  the  far-scattered 
churches  to  serve  and  interpret  their  spirit  adequate- 
ly or  to  adjust  itself  to  their  needs  and  limitations. 

4.  State  and  Southern  Conventions.  The  South- 
ern Baptist  Convention  has  become  a  great  and  pow- 
erful body,  with  constructive  and  saving  agencies 
which  are  mighty  and  far-reaching,  but  it  would  be 
impossible  for  it  to  do  one-half  the  work  it  does  or 
do  it  one-half  so  well,  without  the  presence  and 
leadership  in  each  State  of  a  competent  and  vigor- 
ous State  organization.  So  patent  is  this  that  one 
of  the  chief  functions  of  its  Home  Mission  Board 
during  all  of  its  history  has  been  through  co-opera- 
tive aid  to  help  to  bring  the  new  and  weak  State 
bodies  into  strength  and  adequacy  of  grasp  of  the 
missionary  needs  within  their  territory.  State 
autonomy  looms  large  among  Southern  Baptists.  It 
is  a  historic  and  inevitable  feature  of  our  life.  It  has 
wrought  much  more  good  than  harm,  and  as  our  body 
grows  in  co-operative  experience,  it  will  more  and 
more  understand  how  to  eliminate  what  harm  there 
may  be. 

5.  State  Spirit.  State  autonomy  has  character- 
ized and  conditioned  the  growth  of  Southern  Bap- 
tists as  a  missionary  body  in  a  larger  degree  than 
is  true  of  any  other  religious  body  in  America.    Not 


ORGANIZATION  OF  STATE  BODIES  135 

even  Northern  Baptists,  though  like  us  in  the  inner 
principles  which  seek  to  express  themselves  in  their 
organic  life,  seem  to  attach  half  the  importance 
we  do  to  the  autonomy  of  the  State  bodies.  With 
Southern  Baptists  State  spirit  has  tended  toward  a 
wholesome  rivalry  for  pre-eminence  in  the  things 
of  Kingdom  service  to  which  they  in  common 
devote  themselves,  while  at  the  same  time  it  has 
given  the  local  body  a  sense  of  added  responsibility 
and  freed  it  from  the  interference  of  outside  agen- 
cies in  its  territory,  except  on  conditions  which 
itself  named  as  adapted.  One  of  the  greatest  claims 
the  Home  Mission  Board  could  make  in  evidence  that 
it  has  wrought  tactfully  and  ably  in  the  South, 
would  be  to  show  the  immense  constructive  service 
it  has  rendered  throughout  the  years  in  territory 
every  rod  of  which  is  under  the  primary  supervision 
of  some  State  body.  But  this  happy  facility  in 
finding  always  satisfactory  terms  for  co-operative 
missionary  impact  is  equally  creditable  to  the  State 
bodies,  without  the  sound  judgment  and  fraternal 
concern  of  which  frictionless  co-operation  could  not 
exist. 

6.  Conserving  Church  Independence.  Like  the 
District  Association  the  State  Convention  had  to 
take  a  course  of  many  years  in  the  school  of  local 
church  sovereignty.  The  District  Association  should 
have  learned  its  lesson  so  well  by  the  time  the  State 
bodies  were  organized,  as  to  serve  as  a  helpful 
intermediary  and  conciliator.  Often  it  did,  but  not 
always,  as  we  shall  see.  Says  Dr.  Lansing  Bur- 
rows in  How  Baptists  Work  Together :    ' '  Non-Bap- 


186  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

tist  bodies  claim  a  jurisdiction  in  which  the  local 
organizations  are  held  as  subordinate.  Decrees  are 
made  which,  while  worded  in  gentle  and  affectionate 
terms,  nevertheless  possess  a  binding  force  over  the 
local  church,  as  for  example,  the  Methodist  assess- 
ments for  the  support  of  general  interests.  Our 
brethren  observed  this  practice  among  other  denomi- 
nations, and  set  their  faces  sternly  against  such  imi- 
tation. So  that  it  was  natural  for  them  to  inquire 
closely  if  a  Convention  was  to  be  like  a  General 
Conference  or  Synod,  and  they  were  not  disposed 
to  commit  themselves  until  they  felt  assured  to  the 
contrary. ' ' 

7.  Jealousy  for  Church  Sovereignty  Did  Good. 
It  is  easy  to  smile  at  the  early  Baptist  jealousy  of 
the  principle  of  local  church  independence.  But  it 
was  not  a  smiling  matter  with  them.  Question:  Is 
it  not  probable  that  if  they  had  not  been  so  solicitous 
for  the  principle,  we  would  now  need  rather  to 
mourn  for  ourselves  than  smile  at  them?  It  is  true 
that  anti-missionary  forces  joined  in  the  hue  and 
cry  against  "centralization,"  because  they  saw  that 
a  defeat  of  organization  would  be  a  victory  for 
do-nothingism.  But  it  is  also  true  that  churches  and 
Associations  which  were  supporting  missionary  work, 
were  honestly  afraid  that  the  State  organization 
would  assume  undelegated  authority  and  become 
oppressive.  After  1828  some  of  them  pointed  not 
without  cause  to  the  controversy  that  year  in  the 
Triennial  Convention,  occasioned  by  that  body  ac- 
cepting money  from  the  government  to  educate 
Cherokee  Indians,  as  an  evidence  that  Baptist  Con- 


ORGANIZATION  OF  STATE  BODIES  137 

ventions  would  do  things  they  had  no  business  to  do. 
One  reason  Southern  Baptists  today  are  shot  through 
with  the  thought  that  church  sovereignty  is  to  be 
preserved,  and  all  denominational  action  to  be  ad- 
justed to  this  essential,  is  that  those  early  sires 
vigilantly  watched  every  Association  and  every 
State  Convention  to  see  that  it  did  not  encroach 
upon  the  local  church.  It  may  seem  a  little  unfair 
that  the  average  mode  of  procedure  of  these  de- 
fenders was  to  make  the  Convention  or  Association 
prove  its  innocence  first,  before  they  would  join  it. 
If  all  the  churches  had  done  so,  it  would  have  been 
slow  work  organizing.  But  the  unfairness  is  not 
more  than  is  likely  to  accompany  all  co-operative 
human  action,  however  high  its  purpose,  and  un- 
doubtedly their  persistent  attitude  of  watchfulness 
and  jealousy  did  much  to  fill  the  organized  agencies 
of  Southern  Baptists  until  this  day  with  a  thorough- 
going respect  for  the  supreme  authority  of  the 
local  bodies  they  seek  to  serve,  such  as  probably  no 
other  religious  Conventions  or  Boards  on  earth  ever 
had  besides  ours.  Let  us  thank  God  for  it,  and  also 
those  noble  pioneer  Baptists.  Fine  ideals  come  to 
realization  slowly  when  you  must  first  teach  almost 
everybody  their  value  before  you  can  do  anything. 
But  it  is  the  Lord's  way  and  it  is  the  only  Baptist 
way.  At  the  other  end  of  the  road  is  spiritual 
aristocracy  and  hierarchy,  from  which  may  God  ever 
preserve  Baptists  and  the  world. 

8.  The  First  State  Convention.  The  impulse  to 
organize  State  bodies  seemed  to  strike  Southern 
Baptists  at  almost  the  same  time  in  aU  the  older 


138  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

States.  It  was  only  eighteen  years  from  the  first 
organization  to  the  last  in  the  States  which  were 
then  far  enough  advanced  for  organization.  We 
can  only  conjecture  that  similar  conditions  in  these 
States  and  the  fact  that  Baptists  had  grown  rapidly 
in  each  of  them  for  the  last  thirty  or  forty  years, 
brought  them  all  about  the  same  time  to  feel  the 
need  of  a  State  organization.  In  addition,  the  first 
organization  must  have  suggested  others.  South 
Carolina  led.  At  Columbia,  South  Carolina,  the  Bap- 
tist State  Convention  was  organized  in  1821  by 
delegates  from  the  Charleston,  Savannah  River,  and 
Edgefield  Associations.  Four  other  Asociations  were 
not  represented.  Saluda  Association,  now  a  strong 
missionary  body,  came  in  after  a  year  or  two,  but 
almost  immediately  withdrew,  alarmed  lest  the  State 
body  might  coerce  the  churches.  The  three  Asso- 
ciations which  formed  the  body  and  the  "Welch  Neck, 
a  child  of  Charleston  Association,  were  the  only 
Associations  in  it  until  1835. 

9.  Georgia.  Georgia  organized  in  1822.  It  was 
the  day  of  small  things,  but  they  had  vast  poten- 
tialities. With  about  25,000  Baptists  in  Associa- 
tions, the  Georgia  Convention  was  organized  by 
delegates  from  only  two  Associations — the  Georgia 
and  Ocmulgee.  The  Sarepta,  which  had  issued  the 
call  for  the  organization,  decided  before  the  meet- 
ing that  no  Convention  was  needed.  Organization 
brought  criticism  from  many  Baptist  quarters  here 
as  elsewhere,  and  nine  years  later  the  Ocmulgee 
withdrew  from  the  Convention  under  the  impulsion 
of  anti-organization,  anti-mission  leadership,  and  re- 


ORGANIZATION  OF  STATE  BODIES  139 

mained  out  of  the  body  for  about  half  a  century. 
The  State  Board  of  Missions  was  not  organized  until 
1878. 

10.  Virginia.  Virginia  Baptists  organized  the 
General  Association  at  Richmond  in  1823.  They 
were  familiar  with  co-operative  organizations  among 
the  Associations  for  the  needs  of  religious  liberty  and 
public  welfare,  but  the  new  State  body  gathered  up 
and  expressed  the  conscience  of  the  churches  for  mis- 
sions. Only  fifteen  delegates  were  present  and  in  the 
offing  beyond  the  Blue  Ridge  were  some  anti-mission 
brethren  who  were  not  pleased,  but  Virginia  Bap- 
tists had  had  much  training  in  conflicts  which  were 
of  the  most  serious  moment  and  had  learned  self- 
control.  They  took  hold  of  the  work  of  the  General 
Association  with  a  zeal  which  has  never  abated. 
State  Missions  was  the  prime  concern  of  the  new 
body  and  two  noble  itinerant  missionaries  were  im- 
mediately sent  into  the  back  counties — J.  B.  Jeter 
and  Daniel  Witt.  Virginia,  South  Carolina,  and 
Mississippi  escaped  the  more  lurid  manifestations 
of  the  anti-organization  conflict  which  greatly 
stirred  and  distressed  the  Baptist  Zion  in  the  other 
older  States. 

11.  Alabama.  AJabama  Baptists  also  organized 
their  Convention  in  1823.  The  **anti"  spirit  was 
abroad  and  the  State  was  still  young  and  subject  to 
the  crudities  of  pioneer  commonwealths.  The  Conven- 
tion bravely  sent  out  fifteen  State  missionaries,  who 
went  into  the  back  country  as  gospel  itinerants, 
preaching  Christ  and  counting  as  nothing  the  ravings 
of  the  anti-missionary  preachers,    who   in  Alabama 


140  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

at  that  time  were  extreme  and  unrelenting.  Ten 
years  later,  these  opposers  of  religious  co-operative 
effort  actually  hammered  the  State  Convention  down 
to  four  delegates.  Its  sad  plight  drove  the  four  to 
their  knees  and  God  heard  their  prayer.  The  Con- 
vention began  to  grow  and  has  grown  until  today. 
It  has  blessed  hundreds  of  thousands,  while  the  spir- 
itual descendants  of  the  loud-talking  exponents  of 
unbridled  individualism  are  just  an  untutored  hand- 
ful here  and  there  in  sundry  remote  corners. 

12.  North  Carolina.  North  Carolina  Baptists  or- 
ganized their  State  Convention  in  1830.  They  organ- 
ized simply  by  changing  the  North  Carolina  Baptist 
Benevolent  Society  into  a  Convention.  The  Society 
had  been  an  inter-Association  organization  for  fel- 
lowship, mutual  edification,  and  missions.  The  chief 
intergrating  force  in  North  Carolina  was  State  Mis- 
sions. The  new  Convention  was  frankly  aware  of 
the  anti-mission  opposition  in  the  offing.  Thomas 
Meredith,  one  of  its  most  honored  leaders,  was  ap- 
pointed to  write  a  circular  letter  to  the  Baptists  of 
the  State.  In  this  Meredith  told  the  anti-missionaries 
that  the  Convention  neither  despised  them  nor  was 
afraid  of  them,  but  regarded  them  as  brethren.  ''We 
sincerely  regret  the  loss  of  your  services,"  said  he, 
"but  you  cannot  injure  us  nor  can  you  prevent  the 
accomplishment  of  our  plans."  It  was  a  candid  but 
not  unkind  pronouncement ;  the  author  has  not  found 
a  more  admirable  promulgation  in  connection  with 
the  early  Baptist  conflict  over  missions.  The  fearless 
but  sympathetic  utterances  of  Thomas  Meredith  in 
that  early  day  is  the  spirit  which  characterizes  Tar 


ORGANIZATION  OF  STATE  BODIES  141 

Heel  Baptists  to  this  hour.  If  some  of  the  other 
States  had  faced  the  opposers,  not  only  with  kind- 
ness, which  they  all  showed,  but  frank  fearlessness, 
they  would  no  doubt  have  overcome  them  more  thor- 
oughly and  speedily. 

13.  Kentucky.  Kentucky  organized  a  State  Con- 
vention in  1832.  What  with  the  current  agitation  of 
the  rough  but  gifted  Daniel  Parker  against  mis- 
sions and  of  the  shrewd  and  unscrupulous  Alexander 
Campbell  against  nearly  everything  which  the  preju- 
dices of  untaught  Baptists  objected  to,  the  State 
Convention  could  only  hope  to  succeed  by  giving  the 
"enemy"  no  occasion  of  railing.  Unhappily  they 
adopted  a  scheme  of  "helping  evangelists"  for  dif- 
ferent sections  that  looked  to  the  opposers  like  the 
Episcopal  Bishopric.  So  the  Cenvention  got  weaker 
yearly  and  died  in  1835.  But  in  1837,  at  Louisville,  a 
spiritual  descendent  of  the  Convention  was  estab- 
lished in  the  Kentucky  General  Association.  The 
new  body  announced  as  its  special  business  the  pro- 
motion of  the  cause  of  God  in  Kentucky,  for  the  time 
leaving  the  opposers  no  better  cudgel  than  con- 
jecture as  to  what  its  further  missionary  program 
might  be.  The  new  body  was  missionary  more 
than  most.  It  had  a  great  fight  ahead  against  the 
adversaries,  but  it  made  it  with  remarkable  skill 
and  wisdom.  It  not  only  developed  the  spirit  of  co- 
operative missions  with  great  success,  but  saved  most 
of  the  churches  from  getting  entangled  and  mangled 
in  the  net  which  the  astute  Campbell  had  industri- 
ously woven  and  set  to  ensnare  their  feet. 

14.  Tennessee.    Tennessee    organized    in    1833. 


142  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

With  a  border  country  of  nearly  300  miles  between 
Tennessee  and  Kentucky,  and  both  of  them  largely 
the  children  of  transmontane  pioneer  immigration, 
there  was  much  in  common.  Kentucky  Baptists  at 
first  advanced  more  rapidly  and  they  helped  Ten- 
nessee by  sending  missionaries.  The  infliction  of 
Alexander  Campbell  and  of  anti-mission  agitation 
they  suffered  in  common  and  under  similar  condi- 
tions. The  State  Convention  only  held  together  for 
a  year  or  two,  on  account  of  the  differing  condi- 
tions and  also  the  lack  of  nearness  to  each  other  of 
East,  Middle  and  West  Tennessee.  Sectional  Con- 
ventions were  organized  for  each  division  of  the 
State.  These  performed  a  useful  function  until 
1874,  when  Middle  and  West  Tennessee,  with  some 
of  the  East  Tennessee  churches  participating,  formed 
the  State  Convention  as  it  now  stands.  The  to- 
pography of  Tennessee  has  made  the  effective  organi- 
zation of  Baptists  more  difficult,  and  other  condi- 
tions have  deterred,  but  the  State  organization  of 
today  has  made  great  progress  in  effectiveness  and 
solidarity. 

15.  Missouri.  Missouri  Baptists  organized  a  Gen- 
eral Association  in  1836.  Missouri  was  settled  largely 
from  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  and  other  Southern 
States,  and  the  early  Baptists  got  their  problems 
and  viewpoints  largely  from  the  South.  The  un- 
wholesome flavor  of  Campbellism  and  the  rudeness 
of  anti-mission  opposition  loudly  asserted  themselves. 
Nothing  daunted.  Baptists  of  the  fuller  faith  began 
in  1834  a  preliminary  feeling  toward  State  organiza- 
tion, and  accomplished  it  two  years  later.    The  Bap- 


ORGANIZATION  OF  STATE  BODIES  143 

tist  State  organization  of  Missouri  differs  from  that 
of  other  States  in  that  there  is  an  adjustment  by 
which  they  co-operate  both  with  the  Northern  and 
the  Southern  Baptist  Convention,  a  compromise 
made  to  satisfy  internal  conditions  of  the  body. 
The  General  Association  has  grown  in  power 
and  usefulness  steadily  and  is  cultivating  for  Bap- 
tists and  the  Kingdom  a  field  more  than  usually 
difficult,  on  account  of  involved  urban,  rural,  and 
foreign  problems. 

16.  Maryland.  Maryland  Baptists  organized  the 
Maryland  Union  Association  in  1836.  Years  before, 
in  1793,  the  Baltimore  Association  had  been  or- 
ganized and  had  done  some  excellent  mission  work, 
but  in  1836  the  anti-missionary  forces  got  control  of 
it  and  the  constructive  element  withdrew  and  or- 
ganized the  Union  Baptist  Association,  which  has 
since  been  the  more  than  ordinarily  efficient  general 
Baptist  body  of  the  State.  Small  in  numbers  through- 
out their  history,  in  a  State  of  Catholic  and  Metho- 
dist religious  numerical  strength,  the  Maryland  Bap- 
tists do  more  per  capita  for  missions  than  those  of 
any  other  Southern  State. 

17.  Mississippi.  South  Carolina,  Georgia,  and 
Albama  furnished  many  of  the  earlier  Baptists  in 
Mississippi.  In  the  pre-organization  period  there  was 
some  persecution  by  Catholics.  But  early  Mississippi 
Baptists  seem  to  have  suffered  less  from  anti-mis- 
sion agitation  than  any  of  the  older  States,  per- 
haps less  than  even  Virginia  or  South  Carolina.  Still 
they  were  not  entirely  free  from  such  agitation.  Be- 
fore the  organization,  the  Associations  were  doing 


144  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

capital  mission  work  in  Louisiana  and  steps  had 
been  taken  for  denominational  education  in  the 
State.  The  Mississippi  State  Convention  has  evan- 
gelized its  territory  with  unsurpassed  successs  and 
has  steadily  grown  as  a  constructive  power  in  the 
Southern  Baptist  Convention.  It  was  organized  in 
1836. 

18.  Strength  to  Form  the  Southem  Convention. 
This  completes  the  number  of  State  Baptist  bodies 
organized  in  the  South  before  the  organization  of 
the  Southern  Baptist  Convention.  Texas,  Arkansas, 
and  Louisiana  organized  in  1848,  Florida  in  1854,  and 
Oklahoma,  Illinois,  and  New  Mexico  at  subsequent 
periods.  These  State  organizations,  with  their  in- 
ternal missionary  development  and  their  experience 
in  the  ways  and  means  of  denominational  growth, 
developed  in  the  fire  of  conflict  with  open  opposition 
or  with  indifference  and  reluctance,  made  possible 
the  Southern  Baptist  Convention.  When  it  tran- 
spired in  the  first  meeting  of  that  body,  brought  into 
being  though  it  was  in  part  by  a  principle  in  which 
all  the  denomination  in  the  South  differed  from  the 
Triennial  Convention,  that  there  were  only  sixty  dele- 
gates present  from  beyond  the  two  States  of  South 
Carolina  and  Georgia,  on  whose  borders  it  was  held, 
and  which  sent  262,  the  Convention  fathers  felt  no 
discouragement.  It  was  largely  accounted  for  by 
the  absence  of  facilities  for  travel. 

19.  Developing  the  State  First.  The  first  work 
to  which  the  various  State  bodies  generally  ad- 
dressed themselves  was  State  Missions,  not  however 
to  the  exclusion  of  missions  in  foreign  lands  or  the 


ORGANIZATION  OF  STATE  BODIES  145 

other  sections  of  America.  They  felt  that  the  im- 
mediate necessity  was  upon  them  to  build  up  the 
waste  places  of  Zion  within  their  own  borders  and 
to  develop  a  Baptist  body  able  to  project  itself 
beyond.  They  were  right.  If  they  had  put  the 
emphasis  elsewhere,  they  could  not  have  had  such 
uniform  success  in  overcoming  the  forces  of  disor- 
ganization, which  sought  their  undoing  in  practically 
every  State.  Along  with  evangelistic  zeal,  concern 
for  ministerial  and  general  denominational  education 
did  not  fail  of  early  expression  in  every  State.  To- 
gether with  State  Missions  education  everywhere 
shared  the  distinction  of  being  a  chief  integrating^ 
force.  Great  as  that  story  is,  it  cannot  be  adequately 
set  forth  even  in  epitome  in  these  pages.  However, 
Christian  Education  in  spirit  was  and  is  really  mis- 
sions. 

TEST  QUESTIONS  ON  CHAPTER  VII. 

1.  Show  why  the  establishment  of  denominational  organiza- 
tions among  Baptists  has  been  remarkable.  What  was  the 
shibboleth  of  the  early  Baptists?  Is  there  reason  to  believe 
that  the  hand  of  God  was  in  the  development  of  our 
co-operative  organization? 

2.  How  did  the  integrating  forces  of  the  State  Convention 
differ  from  those  of  the  District  Association?  What  was 
the  first  thought  of  the  State  bodies?  Describe  the  central- 
ity  of  the  State  body  in  our  Baptist  scheme  of  organization. 
Give  the  relative  importance  of  the  State  and  general 
organizations. 

3.  Describe  the  logical  order  of  the  organization  of  Baptist 
bodies.  In  what  large  way  did  the  Southern  Baptist 
Convention  differ  from  the  Triennial  Convention  in  its 
organizing  forces? 


146  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

4.  Describe  how  the  State  bodies  strengthened  the  Southern 
Convention.  Mention  one  of  the  large  functions  of  the 
Home  Mission  Board. 

5.  In  regard  for  State  autonomy  how  do  Southern  Baptists 
compare  with  other  Christian  bodies?  Tell  what  e£Fect 
State  spirit  has  had  among  our  people.  Name  a  great 
claim  the  Home  Board  could  make  to  show  its  efiBciency. 

6.  Tell  what  State  bodies  learned  from  church  independence. 

7.  Explain  how  jealousy  for  church  independence  did  good. 
To  what  act  of  the  Triennial  Convention  did  Baptists  point 
after  182S  in  evidence  of  the  danger  of  centralization? 
Describe  how  early  jealousy  for  church  autonomy  has 
given  Southern  Baptists  now  the  most  democratic  of  or- 
ganizations. 

8.  Give  the  reasons  why  most  of  the  State  Conventions  or- 
ganized near  the  same  time.  Which  was  the  first  State 
body  to  organize? 

9.  Give  the  facts  about  State  organization  in  Georgia. 

10.  Give  the  date  about  State  organization  in  Virginia. 

11.  Give  the  date  about  State  organization  in  Alabama. 

12.  Tell  of  the  organization  in  North  Carolina,  and  of  Dr. 
Meredith's  pronouncement  to  the  anti-missionaries. 

13.  Tell  of  the  difficulties  in  connection  with  State  organiza- 
tion in  Kentucky. 

14.  Describe  the  situation  in  Tennessee  and  give  the  facts 
about  State  organization. 

15.  Give  the  date  and  facts  about  Missouri  organization. 

16.  Tell  of  the  organization  of  the  State  body  in  Maryland. 

17.  Describe  the  situation  in  Mississippi  and  tell  of  the  State 
organization. 

18.  What  State  bodies  organized  later  than  1845?  What  was 
the  relation  of  the  older  State  bodies  to  the  organizing 
of  the  Southern  Baptist  Convention? 

19.  To  what  did  the  State  bodies  address  themselves?  De- 
scribe their  attitude  toward  Foreign  and  Home  Missions. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 
MISSION  WOBE  OF  EDUCATIONAL  AGENCIES. 

1.  Service  of  Immense  Value.  The  agencies  of 
Baptists  in  the  South  for  the  definite  task  of  evan- 
gelizing the  people  and  building  up  the  churches, 
are  the  State  Boards  of  Missions  and  the  Home  Mis- 
sion Board.  There  are,  however,  other  agencies  which 
have  rendered  to  the  denomination  and  to  the  South 
missionary  service  of  immense  value.  To  give  even 
an  adequate  bird's-eye  view  of  the  service  of  these 
agencies  would  require  half  the  space  in  this  book. 
The  present  chapter  will  undertake  merely  to  suggest 
the  inestimable  constructive  service  rendered  by  the 
chief  of  these  agencies,  viz. :  Educational  Institutions, 
the  Sunday  School  Board,  the  "Woman's  Missionary 
Union,  and  the  Denominational  Press. 

2.  Kinship  of  Christian  Education  and  Missions. 
Educational  institutions,  to  be  fostered  and  directed 
by  the  denomination,  came  into  the  minds  of  the 
fathers  as  something  to  be  desired  at  the  same  time 
missions  did.  At  the  constitution  of  most  of  the  State 
Conventions  the  establishment  of  Baptist  educational 
institutions  shared  with  missionary  designs  the  dis- 
tinction of  being  set  forth  as  a  purpose  of  the  or- 
ganization. In  no  State  was  a  Baptist  college  opera- 
ting before  the  State  body  organized,  except  in 
Texas,  and  in  none  did  a  considerable  time  elapse 
after  the  organization  before  a  Baptist  educational 


148  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

institution  was  at  work.  Fought  and  feared  by  the 
same  men  who  opposed  missions,  and  championed 
always  by  the  friends  of  missionary  effort,  Baptist 
educational  endeavor  had  and  still  has  the  right  to 
be  considered  a  twin  brother  of  missions  and  de- 
nominational efficiency. 

3.  To  Educate  Preachers!  Baptist  educational 
effort  in  the  South  was  born  in  a  desire  to  have  an 
educated  ministry,  though  it  soon  grew  to  embrace 
the  desire  for  an  educated  laity.  The  first  advocacy 
among  Southern  Baptists  of  a  fund  for  educating 
preachers,  of  which  there  is  a  record,  was  that  of 
Oliver  Hart  before  the  Charleston  Association  in 
1757.  The  Association  began  a  system  of  support 
for  approved  young  preachers,  while  they  were 
studying  for  the  ministry,  which  it  never  gave  up 
until  the  good  work  was  turned  over  to  the  State 
Convention.  In  1788  the  attention  of  Virginia  Bap- 
tists was  called  to  the  need  of  establishing  a  school, 
and  the  interest  started  eventuated  finally  in  Rich- 
mond College. 

4.  Richard  Furman  and  Education.  To  Richard 
Furman  belongs  the  credit  of  being  the  man  who  first 
turned  the  hearts  of  Baptists  to  the  importance  of 
denominational  education.  He  was  reckoned  the 
greatest  Baptist  of  his  day.  Himself  almost  entirely 
self-educated,  in  1791  he  became  in  South  Carolina 
the  ardent  and  untiring  leader  of  this  cause,  and  the 
old  First  Church,  of  which  he  was  pastor,  its  chief 
supporter.  Twenty-six  years  later,  as  President  of 
the  Triennial  Convention  he  thrilled  the  body  with 
a  great  address  on  the  importance  of  Christian  edu- 


WORK  OF  EDUCATIONAL  AGENCIES  149 

cation,  and  from  that  Convention  went  out  the  in- 
fluences which  put  on  its  feet  the  Baptist  educational 
movement  in  America.  Luther  Rice  is  generally  ac- 
credited as  being  the  first  great  apostle  of  Baptist 
education  in  this  country,  and  the  author  is  reluctant 
to  take  a  position  which  will  doubtless  run  athwart 
the  belief  of  many.  But  Luther  Rice  should  be  ac- 
cepted as  the  agent  of  the  Triennial  Convention, 
appointed  to  promote  missionary  enterprises  and 
later  also  educational  interests.  If  the  greatness  of 
his  labors  in  this  double  cause  be  duly  credited,  he 
will  receive  much  honor.  Meantime,  if  Dr.  Richard 
Furman  was  the  chief  pioneer  of  Baptist  educational 
interests  in  America,  the  full  credit  of  that  leader- 
ship should  be  given  to  his  memory  and  to  Southern 
Baptists.     (See  Appendix  A.) 

5.  Heroic  Devotion  and  Service.  Perhaps  not  even 
the  building  up  of  the  cause  of  evangelistic  mission- 
ary effort  among  Southern  Baptists  has  brought  into 
play  more  heroism  and  sacrifice  than  character- 
ized the  men  who  for  Southern  Baptists  bore  the 
heat  of  the  day  in  developing  our  system  of  theo- 
logical and  collegiate  education.  That  day  was  in- 
terminably long,  the  heavens  were  as  brass,  and  the 
heat  was  fierce  during  a  large  part  of  the  time.  It 
seems  almost  like  irreverence  to  dispose  of  the 
exalted  passion  and  devotion  of  scores  of  the  noblest 
men  the  Baptist  body  or  any  other  religious  body 
ever  produced  with  this  paragraphic  reference.  The 
Southern  Baptist  Theological  Seminary,  Richmond 
College,  Wake  Forest,  Furman,  Mercer,  Howard, 
Mississippi,  Georgetown,  Union,  Baylor,  and  William 


150  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

Jewell,  among  the  older  institutions,  and  scores  of 
others  of  equal  spirit  and  worth  since,  including  the 
Southwestern  Theological  Seminary — the  blood,  the 
tears,  the  lives  of  our  best  and  noblest  have  been 
freely  given  to  them — to  organize  and  to  cherish,  to 
see  disintegrating  through  the  fortunes  of  war,  to 
nurse  and  cherish  again,  always  to  speak  and  write 
and  travel,  trying  to  elicit  at  the  same  time  both 
funds  and  students  from  a  denominational  body 
which  greatly  needed  and  did  not  fully  appreciate 
the  institutions — this  story  rightly  told  could  hardly 
be  surpassed  in  the  annals  of  heroic  devotion  and 
exalted  idealism. 

6.  To  What  End?  Most  of  us  think  of  missions 
only  in  terms  of  preaching  Christ  to  a  lost  soul  and 
bringing  him  to  accept  the  Saviour.  The  concept  is 
glorious  and  great,  but  the  full  function  of  missions 
embraces  more.  There  is  a  life  to  save  and  train 
for  service,  as  well  as  a  soul  to  win.  Far  more  in- 
volved than  evangelistic  missions  is  the  work  of 
leading  out  the  Christian  life  into  service,  but  this 
more  involved  service  is  just  as  truly  in  the  pur- 
poses of  our  Lord.  Chosen  men  among  our  fathers 
saw  this,  but  the  idea  was  beyond  many  and  the 
task  was  hard  of  getting  all  to  see.  After  a  hun- 
dred years,  what  of  the  missionary  value  of  denomi- 
national education?  It  has  given  us  an  educated 
ministry,  without  which  Baptists  could  not  begin  to 
serve  the  great  and  difficult  needs  in  the  South  or  in 
foreign  lands.  It  has  given  us  a  laity  more  active 
and  trained  in  the  things  of  the  Kingdom.  It  has 
given  us  quiet  leadership  and  constructive  effort  in 


WORK  OP  EDUCATIONAL  AGENCIES         151 

hnndreds  of  churches,  without  which  not  any  co-op- 
erative task  we  perform  would  receive  the  support  it 
does.  Particularly,  Christian  education  has  been 
what  the  fathers  believed  it  would  be,  the  right  arm 
of  the  missionary  enterprise  at  home  and  abroad. 
With  an  immense  service  yet  to  render,  Baptist  edu- 
cational institutions  in  the  South  have  justified  every 
dollar  which  has  been  put  into  them,  even  if  the 
contribution  be  considered  only  as  missions. 

7.  The  Sunday  School  Board.  The  Sunday 
School  Board  at  Nashville,  developed  from  small 
beginnings  in  1892  into  a  great  publishing  plant  with 
assets  totaling  $650,000  and  annual  receipts  of  $400,- 
000,  is  the  fruition  of  a  Sunday-school  concern  among 
Southern  Baptists  which  had  manifested  itself  in 
various  ways  and  with  varying  success  since  the 
Southern  Convention  was  organized.  The  history  of 
the  effort  is  largely  that  of  missions  and  for  years 
before  1892  the  Sunday-school  publications  were  in 
the  hands  of  the  Home  Mission  Board.  As  this  great 
religious  business  stands  today,  it  is  not  only  a  plant 
for  intensive  missions  through  its  work  of  "teach- 
ing all  things  whatsoever ; "  it  is  also  appreciably  a 
missionary  agency  in  the  more  generic  sense  of  aiding 
in  evangelizing  the  lost  and  in  developing  the  latent 
resources  of  the  churches.  Including  all  kinds  of 
work  which  may  fairly  be  classed  as  missions,  the 
Board  had  up  to  1915  contributed  more  than  $600,- 
000  to  mission  work. 

8.  Missionary  Day  and  Gifts  to  Boards.  With- 
out taking  space  to  analyze  the  mission  work  of  the 
Sunday  School  Board,   attention  is  called   to   the 


152  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

special  Mjissionary  Day,  which  the  Board  conducts 
in  the  Sunday  schools  of  the  South  annually,  and 
the  missionary  page  it  maintains  in  Kind  Words,  its 
weekly  Sunday-school  paper.  In  addition  it  makes 
considerable  cash  gifts  to  the  work  of  the  Foreign, 
Home  and  State  Boards.  In  1915  these  gifts  totaled 
$17,000. 

9.  Sunday-School  Teacher  Training.  Perhaps  the 
Sunday  School  Board  is  in  advance  of  any  similar 
denominational  agency  in  America  in  its  Department 
of  Sunday  School  Education.  Besides  maintaining 
a  staff  of  ten  expert  field  workers,  who  conduct 
teacher  training  institutes  throughout  the  South,  the 
Board  participates  in  the  support  of  fifteen  State 
Sunday-school  missionaries  or  secretaries,  whose  ac- 
tivities are  somewhat  similar  to  those  of  the  Board's 
own  staff.  This  is  intensive  or  educational  missions 
of  a  high  order  and  of  value  beyond  computation. 
It  means  much  for  the  efficiency  and  largeness  of 
our  denominational  impact  on  the  South  in  the 
future.  Not  only  so ;  these  experts  are  doing  a  work 
of  immense  value  in  teaching  the  young  people  the 
doctrines  of  the  faith. 

10.  Woman's  Missionary  Union.  It  is  not  in- 
tended in  this  book  to  treat  of  the  mission  work  of 
Baptists  in  the  South  among  the  people  of  other 
lands,  though  the  heartiest  recognition  is  given  to 
Foreign  Missions,  both  for  its  helpful  influence  upon 
the  denomination's  work  in  the  South  and  for  its 
great  saving  power  in  other  nations.  The  Woman's 
Missionary  Union  serves  both  Home  and  Foreign 
Missions  and  is  of  great  value  to  both  causes.    With 


WORK  OF  EDUCATIONAL  AGENCIES         153 

a  quietness  and  modesty  which  has  measurably  kept 
the  more  loud-speaking  brethren  from  understand- 
ing the  bigness  and  blessedness  of  their  work,  the 
Southern  Baptist  women  have  developed  approxi- 
mately 9,000  mission  societies  in  the  churches,  besides 
many  children's  societies.  These  operate  through 
State  bodies  and  their  general  Union,  which  are 
auxiliary  to  the  State  and  Southern  Conventions 
respectively.  In  1915  the  women's  missionary  so- 
cieties in  the  churches  in  the  South  contributed  to 
Home  and  Foreign  Missions  $283,500,  out  of  the  total 
of  $925,000  which  Southern  Baptists  gave  to  those 
objects.  That  is,  they  gave  thirty  per  cent,  of  all 
that  was  given  by  the  churches.  At  the  same  time, 
they  contributed  a  large  sum  to  State  Missions  and 
to  the  Training  School  at  Louisville  and  other  ob- 
jects. 

11.  Educational  Missions.  Perhaps  a  greater 
argument  for  the  value  of  educational  or  intensive 
missions  could  not  be  found  than  the  record  of  the 
Woman's  Missionary  Union.  Collecting  money  is 
only  an  incident  with  them ;  their  general  work  is  im- 
parting information.  The  regular  program  of  the 
societies  is  a  program  of  education  concerning  some 
mission  field  or  need.  These  educational  methods, 
quietly  pursued  by  groups  of  Baptist  women  in  9,000 
churches  out  of  24,500,  are  producing  thirty  per  cent, 
of  the  entire  contributions  of  Southern  Baptists  to 
Home  and  Foreign  Missions!  They  educate  and 
easily  raise  much  money  from  a  membership  whose 
average  financial  resources  are  small.  Most  of  the 
churches  depend  upon  special  collections,  without  a 


154  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

system  of  education.  They  have  a  membership  about 
twelve  times  as  large  as  that  of  the  societies,  and 
it  includes  the  sex  which  usually  carries  the  family 
purse.  But  24,500  churches  with  2,600,000  members 
by  this  method  only  do  a  bit  more  than  twice  as 
much  as  9,000  women's  societies  with  about  200,000 
members ! 

12.  The  Press  a  Missionary  Force.  The  denomi- 
national press  of  Southern  Baptists  has  exerted  a 
tremendous  missionary  influence.  This  it  has  done 
through  information  and  appeal  and  by  standing 
for  every  constructive  work  of  the  Kingdom  and  the 
co-operative  efforts  of  the  brotherhood.  The  Baptist 
newspaper  came  into  existence  in  the  South  along 
with  State  organizations,  missions,  and  Christian  edu- 
cation. It  belongs  in  the  same  group ;  without  it  aU 
the  others  would  be  crippled  to  less  than  half  their 
strength.  Query:  Is  it  not  an  anomaly  that,  while 
the  denomination  puts  its  back  beneath  the  load 
borne  by  every  other  agency  it  has  for  Kingdom 
service,  it  continues  to  treat  its  newspapers  as 
half  brothers,  to  be  given  good  will  but  only  such 
aid  as  they  can  by  their  own  strength  command? 

13.  The  Papers  Have  a  Hard  Time.  Methodists 
have  put  their  papers  into  the  denomination 's  scheme 
of  activities.  A  pastor's  work  is  reviewed  and  esti- 
mated partly  on  the  basis  of  how  he  stands  by  or 
neglects  the  circulation  of  the  denominational  paper. 
A  result  is  that  Methodist  families  have  the  religious 
paper  in  a  larger  proportion  than  Baptist  families 
have  theirs.  The  Baptist  paper  has  a  hard  time.  Cath- 
cart's  Encyclopedia  names  forty-six  Baptist  papers 


WORK  OF  EDUCATIONAL  AGENCIES         155 

which  up  to  1880,  had  sought  to  serve  the  brother- 
hood in  the  Southern  States.  Of  the  number  thirty 
had  died  and  sixteen  were  living.  Since  1880  the 
mortality  has  remained  large.  Many  of  the  noblest 
and  best  men  among  us  have  put  their  lives  and 
money  into  this  service,  but  it  is  still  a  difficult  work, 
appreciation  of  which  almost  chronically  declines  to 
take  the  form  of  active  help.  The  paper  is  a  necessity 
as  a  medium  through  which  the  co-operative  ideals 
of  the  denomination  may  be  formed  and  propagated, 
and  through  which  brethren  may  counsel  concerning 
the  growth  of  the  Kingdom  and  stir  up  the  laggard 
and  uninformed  to  an  interest  in  and  understand- 
ing of  such  great  things.  More  than  any  other 
agency  it  develops  a  denominational  consciousness. 
It  breaks  down  misconceptions,  gives  a  medium  of 
expression  to  the  fellowship  of  the  brethren,  wins 
converts  to  missions  and  progress,  and  safeguards 
the  unwary  against  perverse  currents  of  false  teach- 
ing. The  denominational  press  is  absolutely  essen- 
tial to  the  maintenance  on  the  part  of  Baptists  in  the 
South  of  a  constructive  and  triumphant  missionary 
program.  Private  ownership,  which  has  until  now 
been  usual  for  our  newspapers,  has  been  the  occasion 
of  discrimination  against  the  papers,  when  brethren 
have  said  that  they  are  not  under  obligation  to  boost 
a  "private  enterprise."  A  substantial  injustice  is 
done  the  papers  by  this  ungracious  attitude.  The 
fact  is,  the  papers  are  nearly  always  as  helpfully  the 
organs  of  the  denomination  as  they  could  be  if  it 
owned  them,  while  at  the  same  time  private  brethren 
bear  the  burden  of  financing  the  enterprise,  with 


156  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

what  fortune  the  number  of  demises  noted  above 
partly  indicates. 

14.  A  Plea  for  the  Papers.  The  plea  is  entered 
here  that  Baptists,  whether  as  individuals,  churches, 
Associations,  or  Conventions,  ought  to  stand  by  their 
papers  better  than  they  do.  Sometimes  the  paper 
is  so  financially  handicapped  that  it  cannot  render 
the  best  service.  Instead  of  criticism,  it  needs  en- 
couragement and  help.  It  would  not  be  difficult  suc- 
cessfully to  maintain  against  all  comers  the  propo- 
sition that  the  denominational  paper  in  each  State 
is  rendering  a  better  service  than  the  Baptists  de- 
serve, if  due  consideration  is  had  of  the  way  they 
treat  it.  About  one  Baptist  family  in  five  in  the 
South  receives  the  denominational  paper  of  its  State. 
It  is  safe  to  assume  that  this  twenty  per  cent,  of 
our  number  gives  ninety  per  cent,  of  the  finan- 
cial support  to  the  co-operative  work  of  the  denomi- 
nation. The  future  of  all  our  mission  work  and  of 
our  co-operative  impact  on  society  as  a  Christian 
body,  depends  in  no  small  degree  upon  the  strength- 
ening of  the  denomination 's  papers  and  putting  them 
into  the  homes  of  the  people.  Our  Conventions  should 
magnify  this  commonplace  fact  and  do  it  in  a 
way  that  will  inspire  the  brethren  to  take  hold  of  it 
as  if  it  was  new.  Really  to  grasp  it  and  act  upon 
it  in  a  large  and  adequate  way,  would  be  one  of  the 
newest  things  we  could  undertake.  A  pastor  and  a 
church  who  think  it  too  small  a  thing  to  magnify 
the  Baptist  paper  effectively  before  the  people,  have 
already  lost  something  of  their  group  loyalty  as 
Baptists,   something  of  fellowship  with  the   great 


WORK  OF  EDUCATIONAL  AGENCIES         157 

spiritual  body  of  which  they  are  a  part.  To  get 
Baptists  to  take  the  denominational  paper :  Believe 
in  it  yourself,  that  it  has  an  important  mission.  Put 
forth  the  same  kind  of  effort  to  get  others  to  believe 
in  it  that  you  put  forth  for  other  things  you  regard 
necessary.  That  is  all,  and  will  succeed.  Nothing 
less  will  succeed. 

TEST  QUESTIONS   ON   CHAPTER  VIII. 

1.  Tell  of  the  other  agencies  besides  Mission  Boards  which 
render  mission  service. 

2.  Describe    the    kinship    between    Christian    education    and 
missions. 

3.  What    gave    birth    to    Baptist    educational    effort    in    the 
South?     Where  did  the  first  effort  start? 

4.  Describe   the   relation   of  Richard   Furman   to   the   Baptist 
educational  movement.     Give  substance  of  Appendix  A. 

5.  Describe  heroic  work  done  to  establish  Baptist  education. 

6.  Tell  of  the  mission  value  to  denominational  education. 

7.  Tell  of  the  missionary  work  done  by  the  Sunday  School 
Board. 

8.  Describe  Missionary  Day  in  the  Sunday-school. 

9.  Tell  of  the  value  of  Teacher  Training  by  Sunday  School 
Board   experts. 

10.  Tell  of  the  great  mission  work  done  by  the  Woman's 
Missionary  Union.  What  proportion  of  money  given  to 
Home  Mission  and  Foreign  Missions  last  year  was  from 
the  Missionary  Societies? 

11.  What  is  the  leading  characteristic  of  the  efforts  of  the 
Missionary  Societies? 

12.  Give  an  estimate  of  the  value  of  the  Baptist  press  as  a 
mission  agency. 

13.  Tell  of  lack  of  support  among  Baptists  for  their  papers. 
Describe  the  service  rendered  to  missions  by  the  papers. 
Tell  of  private  ownership  and  the  unjust  discrimination 
from  which  the  papers  often  suffer  in  this  country. 


158  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

14.  Give  reasons  why  the  preachers  and  churches  ought  to 
stand  by  the  papers  more  e£Fectively.  What  proportion 
of  our  Baptist  families  receive  a  denominational  paper? 
What  proportion  of  the  gifts  to  denominational  work  come 
from  readers  of  the  papers?  What  will  be  necessary  in 
order  that  Baptists  may  come  to  have  a  conscience  for 
the  mission  of  the  papers? 


CHAPTER  IX. 
DEVELOPMENT  AND  DEVASTATION. 

1.  Twenty  Years  of  Anti-Climax.  In  1845  Bap- 
tists of  the  South  completed  the  frame  work  of 
their  denominational  organization.  For  a  number 
of  years  State  organizations  had  been  in  operation 
in  the  older  States  and  they  had  gathered  experi- 
ence and  strength.  The  brethren  who  established 
them  came  together  in  1845  and  framed  a  general 
organization  for  the  whole  South.  This  they  did 
with  marked  wisdom  and  skill,  a  fruit  of  their  ex- 
perience in  the  State  bodies  and  in  the  Triennial 
Convention  and  of  a  genius  for  organization,  which 
abounding  Baptist  individualism  could  not  thwart. 
The  next  sixteen  years  was  a  period  of  encouraging 
growth  in  missionary  and  educational  activity  on 
the  part  of  the  Baptists.  Then  came  the  War  be- 
tween the  States.  Four  years  of  demoralization  and 
of  devestation  followed,  which  swept  away  Southern 
institutions  and  property  and  brought  every  re- 
ligious activity  almost  to  a  standstill.  It  was  a 
period  of  anti-climax.  It  began  in  hopeful  growth 
and  ended  in  desolation. 

2.  Statistical  Sign  Posts.  By  the  beginning  of 
this  period  the  South  had  thrown  off  the  habiliments 
of  a  resourceful  but  immature  pioneer  life,  and  had 
developed  civil  and  religious  institutions  suited  to 
the  needs  of  a  democratic  civilization.    In  1845  the 


160  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

population  was  approximately  7,325,000,  of  whom 
4,525,000  were  whites  and  2,800,000  Negro  slaves. 
This  advanced  to  12,000,000  in  1860,  of  whom 
8,000,000  were  whites  and  4,000,000  Negroes.  In 
1845  the  South  had  a  mere  beginning  of  2,000  miles 
of  railway,  which  grew  to  10,000  by  1860,  then  ceased 
to  grow  and  began  to  disintegrate  until  1865.  Prop- 
erty values  in  the  South  in  1860  totaled  $6,887,000,- 
000,  in  1870  they  had  fallen  off  $2,417,000,000,  or 
thirty-five  per  cent.  In  addition  to  economic  col- 
lapse, the  whole  social  structure  was  overthrown. 

3.  Slavery.  Slavery  was  an  incubus  upon  the 
life  of  the  South  in  this  period,  but  as  a  class  the 
Southerners  were  the  best  men  who  ever  held  their 
fellow  creatures  in  bondage.  Most  of  the  owners 
were  men  and  women  who  took  seriously  their  re- 
sponsibility for  the  blacks.  These  opened  their 
churches  to  the  slaves  and  taught  them  the  religion 
of  Christ.  Though  the  slave  system  conditioned  the 
entire  life  of  the  section,  a  relatively  small  portion  of 
the  Southern  people  were  slave  owners.  Of  8,000,- 
000  whites  in  1860  there  were  only  384,000  slave 
owners,  and  277,000  of  these  owned  fewer  than  ten 
slaves  and  212,000  fewer  than  five.  Only  10,780 
owned  fifty  or  more.  A  large  number  of  the  slave 
owners  worked  in  the  fields  with  their  bond-servants. 
Professor  W.  L.  Fleming,  of  Louisiana  University, 
from  whose  article  in  Vol.  V  of  The  South  in  the 
Building  of  the  Nation,  these  figures  are  taken,  de- 
clares that  6,000,000  whites  in  the  South  in  1860  had 
no  interest  in  slave  labor.  It  is  estimated  that  the 
whites  performed  as  much  farm  labor  as  the  blacks 


DEVELOPMENT  AND  DEVASTATION  161 

in  the  South,  and  in  addition  nearly  all  the  skilled 
labor.  This  negatives  the  reputation  made  for  the 
South  in  other  sections  by  industrious  writers  who 
fed  their  readers  with  slanderous  misrepresentations 
of  this  section  at  a  time  when  passion  made  them 
ready  to  believe  evil. 

4.  Planter  and  Farmer.  The  planter  owned  a 
thousand  acres,  more  or  less,  and  fifty  or  more 
slaves.  The  farmer  usually  owned  one  or  two  hun- 
dred acres  and  sometimes  a  few  slaves.  The  farmers 
greatly  outnumbered  the  planters.  Dr.  W.  E.  Dodd, 
Professor  of  History  in  Chicago  University,  de- 
clares that  in  any  period  of  the  South 's  history 
nine-tenths  of  the  land  owners  were  small  proprietors 
and  not  planters.  The  planters  were  fewer  than  ten 
per  cent,  of  the  land  owners.  They  kept  the  reins 
of  government  largely  in  their  hands,  the  small  own- 
er's  political  activity  being  usually  confined  to  cast- 
ing a  vote.  Professor  Dodd  is  authority  for  the  state- 
ment (The  South  in  the  Building  of  the  Nation,  Vol. 
V,  pp.  79,  80)  that  in  1863  the  Confederate  Congress 
passed  a  law  exempting  from  military  service  all 
planters  who  owned  twenty  or  more  slaves.  This 
could  not  do  otherwise  than  make  a  breach  between 
classes.  It  is  credited  with  having  been  responsible 
for  many  farmer-deserters  from  the  army.  Inci- 
dentally it  suggests  that  the  New  South  had  better 
not  get  too  close  a  view  of  the  Old  South  life,  if 
we  wish  to  preserve  intact  the  halo  of  romance  with 
which  we  have  enshrined  that  period.  There  is  no 
evidence  that  the  Southern  planters  to  any  appre- 
ciable  extent   shielded  themselves  behind  this   in- 


162  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

suiting  exemption,  but  it  was  unfortunate  it  was 
placed  on  the  statute  books. 

5.  Fiction  versus  Fact.  The  novelists,  from 
whose  highly  flavored  and  garnished  pages  most 
of  us  have  gotten  our  views  of  the  Old  South,  have 
persisted  in  throwing  only  the  picturesque  high 
lights  upon  the  screen,  which  is  a  way  to  make 
large  book  sales,  but  not  to  a  true  portrayal  of  life. 
On  the  one  hand  they  have  given  us  lordly  aris- 
tocratic slave  owners  galore,  with  thousands  and 
thousands  of  acres,  and  on  the  other  a  mass  of  peo- 
ple who  were  low  and  vulgar  and  ignorant.  Blithely 
the  novelist  sets  forth  this  delectable  dish  of  shabby 
idealism,  which  ignores  about  seventy-five  per  cent, 
of  the  people,  that  stalwart,  honest,  and  patriotic 
citizenship  who  made  the  Old  South  great  and  who 
are  the  saving  element  of  every  civilization  that  is 
worthy  to  be  called  great.  We  would  not  discredit 
the  planters  of  the  antebellum  period  or  minimize 
the  fact  that  there  was  much  of  beauty  in  the  feu- 
dalistic  life  of  the  Old  South.  But  it  is  desirable  to 
know  what  the  actual  life  of  the  South  was  in  which 
our  Baptist  sires  were  so  large  a  saving  force,  and 
also  to  join  the  rather  belated  company  of  observers 
who  prefer  to  know  the  facts  rather  than  paint  ro- 
mantic pictures,  and  to  give  due  credit  to  that 
great  middle  class  which  has  far  more  than  all 
others  combined  made  great  both  the  Old  South 
and  the  New  South. 

6.  Baptist  Strength.  In  1845  there  were  350,000 
Baptists  in  the  South,  of  whom  125,000  were  Negroes. 
In  1860  the  number  had  increased  to  640,000,  thirty- 


DEVELOPMENT  AND  DEVASTATION  163 

four  per  cent  of  whom  (about  225,000)  were  Negroes. 
The  increase  was  more  rapid  than  that  of  the  popu- 
lation. The  Baptists  had  their  chief  strength  among 
the  great  middle  class,  though  their  membership 
included  a  number  of  the  wealthy  planters  in  each 
State.  The  denomination  also  reached  out  its  help- 
ing hand  to  the  poorer  class  of  whites  in  the  back 
country,  many  of  whom  since  have  grown  into  power 
and  influence.  About  ninety  per  cent,  of  the  popu- 
lation was  rural,  and  among  these  Baptists  were 
stronger  than  any  other  Christian  body,  though  the 
Methodists  shared  with  them  to  a  large  degree  the 
work  and  the  credit  of  establishing  religious  faith 
among  country  people,  even  out  to  the  remote 
corners.  In  the  cities  the  Baptists  were  less  aggres- 
sive. The  urban  situation  was  so  needy  that  the 
Home  Board  in  this  period  aided  in  establishing 
a  Baptist  church  in  every  State  Capital  in  the  South, 
except  one. 

7.  State  Missions.  Following  the  organization  of 
State  bodies,  the  denomination  at  once  went  to  work 
to  construct  an  earnest  State  Mission  program  in 
practically  all  the  States.  Apparent  exceptions  were 
South  Carolina,  Georgia,  Alabama,  and  Mississippi, 
in  each  of  which  States,  though  a  State  Convention 
had  been  in  successful  operation  for  many  years,  no 
State  Mission  Board  was  constituted  until  after 
the  War.  The  South  Carolina  Board  was  constituted 
in  1867,  the  Georgia  in  1878,  the  Alabama  in  1875, 
and  the  Mississippi  in  1873.  This  does  not  mean 
that  no  mission  work  was  done  by  the  Conventions 
in  their  States.    Alabama  Convention,  for  instance, 


164  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

immediately  on  organizing  sent  out  earnest  mission- 
aries and  sustained  them  through  great  trial.  It  is 
probably  true,  however,  that  State  Missions  played 
a  less  prominent  part  as  an  integrating  force  in  these 
States  than  in  the  others.  Foreign  or  Home  Missions 
or  Christian  education  or  all  together  were  at  first 
their  leading  organizing  forces.  In  most  of  the 
States  the  development  of  the  State  Board  was  an 
evolution.  Mission  work  was  undertaken  at  once, 
and  the  agency  to  manage  it  was  gradually  evolved 
to  meet  the  needs  and  the  growing  importance  of 
the  work.  State  Missions  had  scored  blessed  vic- 
tories for  the  Kingdom  before  1845,  and  from  then 
up  to  the  war  period  it  increased  in  saving  and  or- 
ganizing power  yearly. 

8.  Passing  of  the  Itinerant.  This  period  wit- 
nessed the  passing  of  the  itinerant  preacher  from  the 
scheme  of  Baptist  missionary  operations.  He  had 
occupied  a  great  place  in  establishing  the  Baptists. 
Almost  entirely  it  was  he  who  planted  them.  A  holy 
restlessness  seemed  to  possess  and  inspire  these 
apostles  of  the  Bible  and  the  bridle  path.  A  large 
number  of  them  had  no  settled  pastorate  at  all ;  those 
who  did,  almost  invariably  went  on  frequent  evan- 
gelistic tours,  by  preference  into  settlements  where 
there  were  no  regular  religious  services.  But  a  new 
day  had  dawned,  the  day  of  the  local  pastor,  the  day 
of  shepherding  the  sheep  as  well  as  saving  the  lost. 
The  itinerants  and  not  a  few  of  the  churches  did  not 
welcome  the  change.  With  their  hearts  full  of 
blessed  memories  of  how  the  peripatetic  missionary 
had  made  the  wilderness  dwellers  to  shout  in  the  joy 


DEVELOPMENT  AND  DEVASTATION  165 

of  a  new  found  faith,  these  leaders  of  a  passing  day- 
thought  the  new-fangled  notion  of  requiring  a  mis- 
sionary to  give  his  entire  time  to  three  or  four 
churches  was  mostly  worldly  wisdom  and  an  undue 
restraint  of  liberty.  But  the  State  Boards  were,  as 
far  as  was  expedient,  obdurate,  and  the  Home  Board 
as  rapidly  as  it  could  joined  in  the  same  policy. 
About  1850  Secretary  H.  K.  Ellyson  of  Virginia,  em- 
ploying great  patience  and  tact,  won  the  churches 
and  the  brethren  who  served  the  Board  from  the 
itineracy  to  the  work  of  missionary  pastors.  It  was 
not  long  till  the  change  had  taken  place  through- 
out the  entire  South. 

9.  Other  State  Bodies  Organize.  Excepting 
Florida,  all  the  State  bodies  east  of  the  Mississippi 
organized  before  1845.  Excepting  Missouri,  all  the 
bodies  west  of  that  river  organized  later  than  1845. 
This  statement  takes  no  account  of  Southern  Illinois, 
which  came  into  the  Southern  fraternity  after  with- 
drawal from  the  Northern  Baptist  body,  in  1907,  nor 
does  it  properly  account  for  New  Mexico,  which 
came  to  the  Southern  body  through  change  from  the 
North  in  1911,  The  older  State  organizations  fur- 
nished the  co-operative  conviction  and  impetus  which 
created  the  Southern  Baptist  Convention,  and  the 
Southern  Convention  through  the  Home  Board  recip- 
rocated by  bringing  to  bear  the  spirit  and  liberality 
of  the  whole  body  to  establish  and  build  up  the 
State  bodies  which  have  organized  since  1845.  This 
is  one  of  the  greatest  and  most  useful  services  the 
Home  Mission  Board  has  rendered.  Texas,  Florida, 
Arkansas,  Oklahoma,  Louisiana,  and  New  Mexico  all 


166  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

give  unstinted  and  grateful  testimony  to  this  fact. 

10.  A  New  Frontier.  The  frontier  days  of  the 
Southwest  are  measurably  familiar  to  the  present 
generation.  A  portrayal  has  been  given  in  earlier 
chapters  of  the  more-nearly-forgotten  frontier  days 
of  the  older  States.  Therefore,  it  is  not  necessary 
here  to  try  to  reconstruct  the  life  of  the  early  South- 
west. In  the  main  it  was  similar  to  that  which  had 
been  in  the  East  in  the  days  of  subduing  the  wilder- 
ness. The  elements  of  individual  prowess  and  of 
adventure  were  probably  even  more  in  evidence  in 
this  second  frontier  than  in  the  first.  Omitting  Mis- 
souri, which  was  an  older  State,  the  area  of  the 
Southwest  in  which  Baptists  of  the  South  labor,  is 
560,428  square  miles,  one-fifth  larger  than  all  the 
Southern  States  east  of  the  Mississippi,  the  com- 
bined area  of  which  is  437,783  square  miles.  In 
1850  the  population  of  the  Southwest  region  speci- 
fied was  only  1,000,000,  while  the  population  of 
Texas,  Oklahoma  and  New  Mexico,  with  an  area 
of  458,000  square  miles,  and  larger  than  all  the 
South  east  of  the  Mississippi,  was  only  274,000. 
In  fact,  Oklahoma  was  without  inhabitants,  except 
the  Indians  and  a  few  lawless  whites. 

11.  Southwestern  Growth.  In  the  fifteen  years 
before  the  War,  as  well  as  afterward,  the  growth 
of  population  was  more  rapid  in  the  Southwest  than 
in  the  older  States.  Still  omitting  Missouri,  the 
population  in  the  Southwest  States  increased  to 
1,841,000  by  1860  and  2,122,000  by  1870.  Notwith- 
standing the  immature  and  unstable  pioneer  con- 
ditions.  Baptists   again    in   the    Southwest    demon- 


DEVELOPMENT  AND  DEVASTATION  167 

strated  their  ability  to  plant  churches  and  estab- 
lish the  institutions  of  a  Christian  civilization  in  a 
new  and  rough  country.  A  handful  of  15,000  in 
1851  grew  to  44,000  in  1860,  and  162,000  in  1875,  in 
the  States  of  Texas,  Louisiana,  Arkansas,  Oklahoma, 
and  New  Mexico.  With  new  and  more  diflScult 
pioneer  conditions  to  conquer  by  the  gospel  than 
the  older  States  had  faced,  the  young  Southwestern 
Baptists,  recruited  for  the  most  part  from  the  Old 
South  country,  proved  themselves  strong  enough  to 
grow  and  to  make  the  Southwest  a  country  where 
Christ  should  reign  in  men's  hearts  and  lives. 

12.  Texas.  Texas  Baptists  organized  their  State 
body  in  1848.  Texas  had  organization  troubles;  at 
one  time  had  four  Conventions.  But  Texas  Bap- 
tists have  demonstrated  great  ability  to  compose 
their  differences.  From  the  first  that  spirit  seemed 
to  possess  them  which  Dr.  J.  B.  Gambrell  prescribes 
as  a  solvent  of  the  spirit  of  faction  among  Bap- 
tists: To  be  so  busy  doing  the  great  constructive 
tasks  of  the  Kingdom  that  little  things  shall  be 
forgotten.  In  many  sections  of  the  Southwest  Bap- 
tists suffered  less  in  the  days  of  their  beginnings 
from  the  conflict  of  missions  and  anti-missions  than 
was  suffered  by  the  country  east  of  the  Mississippi. 
Perhaps  this  was  not  more  true  anywhere  than  in 
Texas.  There  was  to  be  a  day  of  anti-Board  con- 
flict, but  anti-missions  was  not  again  to  stand  forth 
boldly  as  a  challenging  protagonist  among  Baptists. 
Henceforth  anti-missions  was  to  fight  only  in  cor- 
ners and  from  out  in  the  brush.  Tavo  years  before 
the  State  body  was  organized,  the  Home  Board  mis- 


168  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

sionaries  entered  Texas.  Education  and  newspaper 
interests  were  given  immediate  and  competent 
thought.  From  the  first  church  in  1837,  the  Bap- 
tists grew  to  125  churches  and  4,259  members  in  1851, 
and  to  18,727  members  in  1860. 

13.  Louisiana.  Louisiana  Baptists  organized 
their  Convention  in  1848.  They  had  been  recruited 
mainly  from  the  lower  tier  of  States  east  of  the 
Mississippi.  With  peculiar  difficulties  of  their  own 
to  overcome,  like  Texas  they  were  largely  exempt 
from  anti-mission  agitation.  In  fact,  though  some 
may  question  the  statement,  it  is  doubtful  whether 
Baptists  in  any  of  the  Southwestern  States  have 
been,  age  for  age,  as  much  torn  with  conflict  in  set- 
tling the  foundations  as  the  older  States  were. 
Louisiana,  in  common  with  the  sister  States  of  the 
Southwest,  received  missionary  aid  in  the  early  years 
from  the  older  States  through  the  Home  Board,  and 
churches  built  by  missionaries  regularly  become  mis- 
sionary churches.  They  do  not  fight  missions.  Ro- 
man Catholics  from  the  first  had  a  strong  grip  in 
Louisiana  and  Baptist  growth  was  attained  in  the 
face  of  the  opposition  and  often  the  persecution  of 
the  priests  and  their  misguided  followers.  The  young 
Convention  immediately  became  busy  with  missions 
in  its  own  territory  and  beyond  and  in  an  effort  to 
maintain  a  Baptist  school. 

14.  Arkansas.  Like  Texas  and  Louisiana,  Ark- 
ansas organized  its  State  Convention  in  1848.  Very 
early  in  the  nineteenth  century  Baptists  came  into 
Arkansas  from  Missouri  and  in  1820  the  White 
River  Association  was  organized  in  the  northeast- 


DEVELOPMENT  AND  DEVASTATION  169 

ern  part  of  the  State.  Six  other  Associations  had 
been  organized  by  the  time  the  State  body  was 
constituted.  The  Home  Mission  Board  came  to  the 
aid  of  the  churches  and  the  cause  grew.  There  was 
no  notable  increase  in  numbers  until  between  1860 
and  1875,  in  which  period  the  growth  was  from 
11,000  to  46,500,  400  per  cent.  Arkansas  Baptists 
had  ahead  of  them  a  hard  and  long  conflict  with 
anti-missions,  more  so  than  any  other  State  in  the 
young  Southwest,  perhaps  not  more  so  than  some 
of  the  east-of -Mississippi  States  at  an  earlier  date. 
The  chief  point  of  difference  is  that  Arkansas  Bap- 
tists had  a  larger  part  of  this  conflict  after  fram- 
ing their  State  organization  than  any  of  the  older 
States  had.  We  must  for  a  moment  pass  over  into  a 
later  period  to  observe  that  there  was  to  develop  a 
brave  and  consecrated  leadership  among  Arkansas 
Baptists,  sufficient,  as  their  brethren  before  them  in 
other  States  had  been,  to  win  the  victory  for  the 
Lord  and  the  Kingdom  against  anti-missions  and 
anti-co-operation.  The  guerilla  bands  of  anti-mis- 
sions are  still  firing  fusillades  in  Arkansas,  just  as 
they  did  years  ago  in  older  States,  (and  as  they  do 
more  faintly  even  now)  but  Arkansas  today  is  full 
of  promise  for  Baptists  and  in  many  other  ways.  It 
is  a  great  State.  It  has  been  perhaps  the  most 
underestimated  commonwealth  in  the  South,  but  its 
real  worth  is  coming  to  be  known.  In  its  last  stand 
in  Arkansas,  as  in  all  its  former  onslaughts,  anti- 
missions  gives  its  time  to  fighting  the  co-operative  or- 
ganizations through  which  the  denomination  does 
mission  work,  rather  than  in  denying  the  principle  of 


170  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

missions.    But  the  practical  result  unfortunately  is 
the  same:    non-participation  in  Kingdom  service. 

15.  Florida.  To  keep  the  chronological  sequence, 
we  leave  Oklahoma  and  New  Mexico,  younger  Bap- 
tist bodies,  while  we  mention  Florida  Baptists,  who 
organized  their  State  Convention  in  1854.  As  in 
Louisiana,  in  Florida  the  Baptist  pioneers  found  Ro- 
man Catholicism  in  charge,  though  a  large  part  of 
the  population  was  spiritually  destitute.  The  Florida 
Association  was  organized  in  1841  or  1842.  Two 
other  similar  organizations  followed  and  then  the 
State  body  was  organized.  The  Home  Board  was 
doing  mission  work  in  Florida  for  nine  years  before 
the  State  Convention  was  organized,  largely  through 
itinerants,  who  visited  many  communities  and 
churches.  In  1851  there  were  2,600  Baptists.  This 
number  doubled  by  1860  and  grew  to  17,300  by  1875. 
In  a  later  period  the  body  was  to  grow  both  in  mis- 
sionary power  and  in  numbers. 

16.  Praying  and  Marking  Time.  New  Mexico 
Baptists  organized  in  1900,  Oklahoma  Baptists  in 
1906,  and  South  Illinois  in  1907.  All  of  these  belong 
to  a  later  period  of  Baptist  growth  in  the  South. 
Sixteen  years  of  splendid  Baptist  growth  and  mis- 
sionary effort,  just  before  the  War,  was  followed  by 
four  years  of  tearing  down  of  everything  in  the 
South,  except  its  faith  and  courage  and  its  amazing 
Anglo-Saxon  resiliency  and  resourcefulness.  At  the 
Associations  old  men  met  and  prayed,  passed  reso- 
lutions and  went  home.  The  younger  men  were  in 
Lee's  armies.  At  the  State  Conventions  ;it  was 
much  the  same.     They  humbled  themselves  before 


DEVELOPMENT  AND  DEVASTATION  171 

God,  passed  resolutions  about  the  War,  provided  for 
mission  work  and  eolportage  among  the  soldiers,  and 
went  home.  It  was  no  time  to  talk  of  lengthening 
the  cords  and  they  were  too  dazed  to  see  clearly 
how  even  to  strengthen  the  stakes. 

17.  Wreckage.  Endowments  for  colleges,  which 
had  been  laboriously  collected,  melted  away  like  ice 
in  the  August  sunshine.  The  Foreign  Mission  in- 
terests were  kept  together,  but  no  increase  was  even 
contemplated.  Home  Missions  compressed  itself  al- 
most entirely  into  the  task  of  supporting  army  mis- 
sionaries, which  was  done  on  a  considerable  scale  and 
with  blessed  results.  State  Missions  also  greatly  cur- 
tailed its  efforts.  Some  attention  was  given  to  Negro 
missions,  even  in  the  darkest  hours.  Many  of  the  Bap- 
tist papers  suspended  publication  and  the  others 
lived  even  nearer  the  brink  of  financial  insolvency 
than  had  been  their  custom.  The  organized  life  of 
Baptists,  built  up  in  response  to  an  inner  necessity 
and  at  the  cost  of  endless  and  laborious  effort,  was 
at  a  standstill,  and  their  constructive  institutional 
life  was  rapidly  disintegrating  before  their  eyes. 
Not  even  the  economic  life  of  the  South  suffered 
more  from  the  War  than  did  co-operative  missionary 
effort  by  religious  bodies.  These,  however,  did  not 
lose  their  faith.  Adversity  and  sorrow  brought  men 
to  their  knees.  They  could  not  build  for  God  in 
institutional  effort;  but  they  did  enshrine  him  in 
the  hidden  inner  man  and  found  thus  a  richness 
and  courage  that  was  to  strengthen  the  South  for 
the  almost  superhuman  ordeals  of  Reconstruction 
which  awaited. 


172  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

TEST  QUESTIONS  ON  CHAPTER  IX. 

1.  Give  the  outstanding  characteristics  of  Southern  Baptist 
life  between  1845  and  1865. 

2.  Tell  of  the  population  in  1845  and  1860.  Give  the  loss 
of  wealth  during  the  war. 

3.  Did  the  slave  owners  usually  take  seriously  their  respon- 
sibility for  the  blacks?  How  many  slave  owners  were 
there  in  1860?  How  many  owned  fifty  slaves  or  more? 
Describe  the  proportion  of  actual  labor  performed  by 
whites  and  blacks. 

4.  Describe  the  difference  between  the  planter  and  the 
farmer  and  tell  of  proportion  of  each.  Tell  of  the  ex- 
emption  of   planters   from   military   service. 

5.  Have  the  novelists  rightly  portrayed  ante-bellum  life? 
What  part  did  the  great  middle  class  play  in  the  Old 
South? 

6.  Tell  of  the  number  of  Baptists  in  1845  and  1860.  Among 
what  class  did  Baptists  have  their  main  strength?  Tell  of 
the  relative  strength  in  country  and  town. 

7.  Tell  of  State  Mission  effort  during  this  period.  Which 
of  the  older  States  did  not  organize  a  State  Board  till  after 
the  War? 

t.  Tell  of  the  passing  of  the  itinerant  from  the  Baptist  mis- 
sion system.  Describe  the  new  day  which  dawned  and 
the  policy  of  the  Mission  Boards. 

9.  Describe  the  impetus  given  by  the  older  State  organiza- 
tions through  the  Southern  Convention  to  organizing  new 
State  bodies. 

10.  Give  area  of  the  Southwest,  exclusive  of  Missouri,  and 
give  the  population  in  1850.  What  was  the  combined 
population  of  Texas,  Oklahoma  and  New  Mexico  in  1850? 

11.  Describe  the  growth  of  the  Southwest,  exclusive  of  Mis- 
souri, in  fifteen  years  immediately  before  the  War. 

12.  Give  the  date  and  facts  about  the  organization  of  the 
Texas  State  body. 

13.  Give  the  date  and  facts  of  the  organization  of  the  Louisi- 
ana Convention. 


DEVELOPMENT  AND  DEVASTATION  173 

14.  Give  the  date  and  facts  of  the  organization  of  the  Arkan- 
sas Convention.  Describe  the  conflict  in  Arkansas  with 
anti-missions. 

15.  Give  date  and  facts  of  the  State  organization  in  Florida. 

16.  Describe  sixteen  years  of  growth  and  four  years  of  tear- 
ing down. 

17.  Tell  of  the  wreckage  brought  by  the  War  to  religious 
institutions  and  e£Forts. 


The  South  has  passed  through  two  periods  since  1865 
which  greatly  influenced  the  development  of  its  people.  One 
of  these  was  known  in  history  as  the  "Reconstruction"  times, 
when  desolation  and  destruction  prevailed  everywhere,  and 
when  a  severe  lesson  of  endurance,  patience  and  long  suffer- 
ing was  forced  upon  the  entire  population  of  the  South.  The 
trial  almost  reached  to  the  crushing  point. 

During  the  second  period,  now  in  force,  when  great  pros- 
perity possesses  the  minds  and  hearts  of  the  Southern  people 
the  test  of  the  stability  of  character  is  as  strong  as  it  was 
in  the  first  period.  How  have  God's  people  stood  the  test? 
To  answer  this  question  let  us  examine  some  of  the  facts 
that  are  presenting  themselves  from  the  conditions  govern- 
ing and   controlling   this   great  prosperity. 

1.  The  minds  of  the  people  have  become  greatly  absorbed 
by  desires  to  accumulate  wealth  for  gratifying  the  demands 
for  comfort,  social  pleasures  and  luxurious  tastes.  Many 
seem  to  believe  that  happiness  will  be  found  in  engaging  in 
such   pursuits. 

2.  This  struggle  for  material  things  has  so  largely  filled 
the  minds  of  many  of  our  people  that  the  spiritual  part  of  their 
beings  has,  in  many  cases,  become  sadly  waroed.  The  pews  of 
the  churches  are  rapidly  becoming  empty.  The  automobile 
blessing  is  becoming  a  hindrance  to  church  attendance  be- 
cause of  the  temptation  to  spend  the  Sabbath  morning  in 
the  country  during  the  time  that  God's  houses  are  open  for 
His  worship.  This  factor  has  become  a  serious  interference 
with  the  establishment,  growth  and  development  of  churches 
throughout   the   South,   especially  in   the  cities. 

3.  Society  has  become  feverish  in  the  search  on  the  part 
of  many  of  its  devotees  for  happiness  through  questionable 
ways   pursued  by   them. 

4.  Although  the  banks  are  prosperous  through  the  savings 
of  the  people,  God's  treasury  is  often  empty,  because  of  the 
small  contributions  coming  to  the  churches  for  benevolence, 
and  the  cause  of  Christ  is  suffering  everywhere.  Souls  are 
calling  out  for  salvation,  and  there  is  not  sufficient  money  in 
the  treasuries  of  the  churches  with  which  to  pay  the  cost 
of  sending  the  gospel  to  them  in  all  parts  of  the  world. 

—P.  H.   MELL. 


CHAPTER  X. 
PABTIAL  PABALYSIS  AND  BECUPEBATION. 

1.  Beconstruction.  The  situation  created  by  the 
Reconstruction  Period  in  the  South  was  so  bad  that, 
if  the  War  itself  had  continued  to  1874,  it  could 
scarcely  have  retarded  the  growth  of  civil  and  re- 
ligious institutions  more.  In  some  respects  Recon- 
struction was  worse  than  the  War.  If  Lincoln  had 
lived.  Reconstruction  would  have  been  vastly  easier 
than  it  was.  In  1865  nearly  every  one  of  the  South- 
ern States  adopted  the  Thirteenth  Amendment  and 
provided  for  the  Negro  franchise.  President  John- 
son followed  Lincoln  as  President  and  seemed  de- 
sirous to  carry  out  the  pacific  and  statesmanlike  pur- 
poses of  the  fallen  leader,  but  there  was  a  large 
element  of  fanatics  at  the  North  who  would  be 
satisfied  with  no  scheme  of  Reconstruction  that  did 
not  humiliate  and  show  contempt  for  their  fallen 
foe.  The  perverse  doings  of  these  men,  whom  the 
stress  of  the  times  had  brought  to  the  fore,  were 
responsible  for  setting  back  for  at  least  ten  years 
the  date  when  the  real  Reconstruction  of  the  South 
could  begin. 

2.  A  Program  of  Folly  and  Hate.  The  confusion 
and  helplessness  created  by  the  mad  folly  of  the  so- 
called  reconstructive  measures  for  the  South,  foisted 
on  the  prostrate  section  by  the  party  which  became 
dominate  in  Congress  in  1867,  had  a  pronounced  and 


176  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

far-reaching  effect  in  delaying  the  recuperation  of 
the  religious  forces  in  that  section.  The  policies  of 
Lincoln  and  of  Johnson  were  rejected.  Those  of 
Sumner  and  Stevens  were  adopted.  The  ignorant 
ex-slaves  were  given  the  franchise  and  it  was  taken 
away  from  the  ex-Confederate  soldiers.  Followed  a 
bacchanalian  spectacle  of  legislation  in  the  Southern 
States  by  unprincipled  carpet-bag  whites  and 
ignorant  Negroes,  which  was  ruinous  and  utterly  de- 
moralizing to  religious,  economic,  and  social  prog- 
ress. The  South  Carolina  legislature  had  eighty- 
eight  blacks  and  sixty-seven  whites ;  the  whole  mem- 
bership of  the  Alabama  legislature  paid  less  than 
$100  in  taxes.  Capital  to  the  amount  of  $2,000,000,- 
000  had  disappeared  in  the  slaves  and  the  South 
confronted  the  stupendous  task  of  readjusting  its 
social  and  economic  system  to  the  condition  of  their 
freedom.  But  this  herculean  problem  paled  into 
smallness  by  the  side  of  that  which  grew  out  of  the 
supreme  folly  and  unpardonable  viciousness  of  the 
dominant  party  in  national  politics  in  putting  a  race 
late  from  jungle  life  at  the  helm  of  institutions 
created  by  and  adapted  to  the  Anglo-Saxon. 

3.  A  Satumalian  Orgy.  Federal  agents  fol- 
lowed the  army  of  occupation  over  the  South  tak- 
ing away  from  ex-Confederates  whatever  property 
they  had  left,  "confiscating"  it.  A  heavy  tax  was 
put  upon  cotton,  payable  to  the  conqueror.  The  bad- 
Negro  and  worse-white  legislature  in  South  Caro- 
lina in  one  session  spent  $95,000  for  furniture,  $80,- 
000  of  which  went  to  furnish  the  homes  of  the  mem- 
bers.    In  Louisiana  the  legislative  expenses  of  one 


PARTIAL  PARALYSIS  AND  RECUPERATION  177 

session  were  more  than  $900,000.  Vast  sums  were 
voted  to  build  railroads,  which  were  never  built, 
though  the  money  for  them  disappeared  by  the  ma- 
nipulation of  theiving  carpet-baggers.  And  so  it 
went  all  over  the  South.  Under  the  leadership  of 
unprincipled  carpet-bag  whites,  the  Negroes  became 
impudent  and  disrespectful  to  their  former  masters. 
The  Kuklux  Klan  was  the  only  institution  that  really 
preserved  public  order.  And,  though  necesary,  it 
was  extra-legal  and  demoralizing.  It  was  from  this 
saturnalian  debauch  of  jungle-control,  propped  up 
by  bayonets  and  unscrupulous  adventurers  over  in- 
stitutions of  the  Anglo-Saxon,  that  the  religious  and 
moral  manhood  of  Southern  whites  had  to  rescue  the 
South. 

4.  The  South  Is  Loyal.  The  North,  be  it  said 
with  satisfaction,  was  not  all  as  perverse,  even  in  the 
hour  of  victory,  as  was  the  dominant  political  party 
there.  It  was  the  resentment  of  the  quiet  better 
and  sensible  class  at  the  North  which  in  the  end 
came  to  the  aid  of  the  South  and  helped  to  save 
it  from  the  demoniacal  folly  of  those  who  seemed  to 
desire  utterly  to  destroy  this  great  section  and  its 
great  people.  And  it  is  also  to  be  said  with  still 
more  satisfaction  that  the  responsible  thought  of 
the  North  today  is  ashamed  of  that  awful  program 
of  Reconstruction  and  repudiates  it.  Though  we 
cannot  use  mild  words  to  characterize  the  coUossal 
perversity  of  the  Reconstruction  program,  which 
did  far  more  to  embitter  the  South  than  the  "War  did, 
yet  the  South  feels  no  bitterness  now,  and  our  peo- 
ple desire  to  serve  and  strengthen  the  whole  nation, 


178  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

and  they  love  the  whole  nation  with  a  passion  which 
no  man  is  capable  of  feeling  who  would  treat  an 
honorable  foe  as  the  South  was  treated  in  the  Recon- 
struction. 

5.  The  Enviromnent  of  Religious  Effort.  The 
only  explanation  the  writer  need  make  of  this  brief 
peep  here  at  Reconstruction  history,  is  to  say  that 
it  formed  the  environment  in  which  the  religious 
bodies  of  this  section  had  to  take  hold  of  their  task 
of  reconstruction.  To  say  which  is  to  offer  an  expla- 
nation that  would  adequately  account  for  complete 
failure  on  their  part.  But  they  did  not  have  com- 
plete failure.  Pushed  to  the  wall,  the  Southerners 
through  the  Kuklux  Klan  used  intimidation  as  a 
means  to  good  order  and  the  writer  knows  that  at 
least  in  his  own  native  State  ballot  box  "stuffing" 
was  practised.  Demoralizing  as  such  practices  were, 
the  preachers  had  no  heart  to  rebuke  them  and  were 
powerless  to  stop  them,  if  they  had  had.  In  most  of 
the  States  for  several  years  after  the  "War  the  reports 
at  the  Baptist  Associations  complain  of  a  falling  off 
in  piety  and  an  increase  in  pleasure  seeking  and 
worldliness,  and  at  both  Associations  and  Conven- 
tions the  brethren  prayed  much,  surveyed  the  field, 
counseled  about  meeting  needs  they  had  almost 
no  means  of  meeting,  and  went  home. 

6.  State  Missions.  In  some  of  the  States  State 
Missions  showed  a  remarkable  growth  immediately 
after  the  War,  only  to  be  retarded  with  everything 
else  by  the  financial  pressure  which  came  in  the 
early  seventies.  North  Carolina  and  Kentucky  were 
particularly  devoted  to  local  evangelization.    In  the 


PARTIAL  PARALYSIS  AND  RECUPERATION    179 

History  of  North  Carolina  Baptist  Convention,  Dr. 
Livingston  Johnson  says:  "In  1866  the  churches 
exhibited  an  interest  and  spirit  of  self-sacrifice  un- 
exampled in  our  former  history.  Often  contributions 
were  thrust  into  the  hands  of  the  State  Secretary 
quietly  and  privately,  and  the  donors  would  turn 
away  with  throbbing  hearts  and  streaming  eyes." 
The  perverse  Reconstruction  program  was  rapidly 
running  the  South  on  to  the  rocks  of  bankruptcy 
and  in  some  respects  the  pressure  in  1870  was  worse 
than  in  1865.  It  was  five  years  later  before  the 
hand  of  power  ruthlessly  used  was  taken  from  the 
neck  of  the  South  and  there  really  came  a  chance 
to  make  substantial  religious  progress. 

7.  Poverty  of  Resources.  In  the  meantime,  the 
State  Conventions  projected  and  sought  lo  maintain 
State  Missions  and  the  Southern  Baptist  Convention 
maintained  its  organization  and  did  all  it  could  for 
Home  and  Foreign  Missions.  In  1870  $22,500  was 
raised  from  the  churches  for  Home  Missions  and 
$22,000  for  Foreign  Missions.  In  1875  the  amounts 
given  to  these  objects  were  $23,000  and  $33,000, 
and  in  1885  to  $71,000  and  $64,000.  The  Baptists  of 
the  South  were  in  poverty.  Every  educational  in- 
stitution they  had  was  in  great  need  of  financial 
assistance.  Endowments  had  disappeared  and  pre- 
viously-pledged aid  failed  because  there  was  noth- 
ing with  which  to  pay.  The  State  Mission  need  was 
evident;  it  fairly  shouted  from  the  housetops. 
Bravely  the  denomination  through  its  organized 
agencies  addressed  itself  to  all  these  tasks.  Though 
it  had  little  to  work  with,  it  accomplished  wonders 


180  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

with  the  little  it  had.  Year  after  year  came  of 
urgent  pleas  for  causes  worthy  enough  and  needy 
enough  to  make  one  weep;  year  after  year  of  small 
response,  but  of  a  response  from  faithful  hearts, 
which  were  touched  by  the  needs  of  Zion  and  de- 
sired to  see  her  walls  builded  up  round  about. 

8.  Harmony  and  Patience.  Through  all  those 
years  of  prayer  and  of  hope  deferred  there  sounded 
no  note  of  despair,  with  perhaps  two  exceptions. 
One  of  these  was  when  in  Atlanta  in  1879,  the 
question  of  uniting  with  Northern  Baptists  was  dis- 
cussed before  the  Southern  Baptist  Convention,  and 
the  other  occurred  three  years  later  in  Greenville, 
South  Carolina,  when  there  was  talk  of  doing  away 
with  the  Home  Mission  Board.  Both  propositions 
were  rejected  promptly  and  decisively.  "When  all  is 
considered,  it  is  remarkable  how  the  Home  Mission 
Board  and  the  State  Mission  Boards  have  so  regular- 
ly conducted  their  work  in  the  South  in  perfect  har- 
mony. A  study  of  the  experience  of  other  Christian 
bodies  with  their  general  and  divisional  agencies 
for  Domestic  Missions  hardly  affords  a  parallel  to 
the  good  understanding  and  co-operation  of  Home 
and  State  Mission  Boards  of  Southern  Baptists.  Still, 
it  ought  to  be  noted  that  this  harmony  was  not  abso- 
lutely without  break.  Both  before  and  during  the 
present  period  the  question  arose  in  some  States 
of  turning  over  the  State  work  to  the  Home  Board, 
and  in  others  of  doing  the  State  work  and  letting 
the  Home  Board  severely  alone.  Better  counsel 
prevailed  in  each  case  and  both  the  State  and  general 


PARTIAL  PARALYSIS  AND  RECUPERATION  181 

agencies  for  saving  the  South  were  maintained  and 
told  to  work  together  in  harmony. 

9.  "Agencies."  "Agencies"  was  for  many- 
years  a  regularly  recurring  subdivision  in  the 
Foreign  and  Home  Board  annual  reports,  and  also 
in  those  of  the  whilom  Bible  Board.  These  agencies 
consisted  of  a  number  of  preachers  employed  by 
the  Boards  to  itinerate  in  order  to  stir  up  the  pure 
consciences  of  the  brethren  by  way  of  remembrance, 
particularly  to  take  collections  for  the  employer 
Board,  after  as  powerful  an  address  as  might  be 
about  its  work.  The  General  Boards  believed  these 
agents  necessary,  and  they  certainly  did  greatly 
increase  the  collections.  The  State  bodies  in  general 
seemed  to  get  pretty  tired  of  the  agents,  and  there 
came  a  time  when  these  had  to  cease  their  activities. 
The  severe  straits  of  the  General  Boards  after  the 
War  once  more  turned  their  thoughts  longingly 
toward  field  agents  as  an  aid  in  the  efforts  to  finance 
the  work,  but  the  proverty-stricken  States  and  the 
urgent  cries  of  intra-State  needs  that  must  be  sup- 
plied, made  the  agent  for  a  General  Board  have  an 
unpleasant  time  of  it.  The  day  of  the  money-collect- 
ing agent  was  about  done  and  the  day  of  the 
educational  agent  or  intensive  missionary  was  not 
to  dawn  for  about  three  decades. 

10.  Helping  the  Negroes.  Baptists  of  the  South 
throughout  the  life  of  the  Republic  have  shown  more 
interest  in  the  evangelization  of  the  Negroes  than 
any  other  Christian  body,  though  excellent  service 
has  been  rendered  by  others,  especially  the  Presby- 
terians and  Methodists.     During   the    period    now 


182  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

under  review  Baptists  continued  their  work  for  the 
Negroes.  The  fact  of  the  large  predominance  of 
the  Baptist  faith  among  the  blacks  today  is  mainly 
the  result  of  the  large  and  unfailing  missionary  con- 
cern of  the  Baptists  for  the  blacks.  Enough  recog- 
nition has  not  been  given  to  the  Southern  Christian 
bodies  for  their  loving  helpfulness  to  the  freed  slaves 
during  the  War  and  after  its  close.  With  the  country 
in  ruins  and  literally  everything  to  reconstruct  and 
revitalize,  one  of  the  first  concerns  of  the  State 
Boards  and  of  the  Home  Board  was  to  look  out  for 
the  religious  weal  of  the  blacks.  Missionaries  were 
sent  among  them ;  they  were  helped  in  building  their 
churches  when  they  drew  out  of  the  white  churches. 
The  land  on  which  their  houses  of  worship  were 
built  was  usually  given  by  some  white  friend,  and 
also  most  of  the  lumber  used  for  building.  The  con- 
sistent friendliness  and  patient  helpfulness  of  the 
Christian  people  of  the  South  to  the  Negroes,  at  a 
time  whene  the  Northern  politicians  and  newspapers 
ignored  and  discounted  that  friendship  and  per- 
versely sought  to  inflame  the  blacks  against  the 
whites,  was  an  ample  refutation  of  the  gifted  and 
impassioned  but  essentially  erroneous  representa- 
tions of  Mrs.  Stowe's  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin.  This 
book  had  made  many  a  soldier  in  the  Union  army, 
who  did  not  really  know  what  religion  is,  imagine 
he  was  fighting  a  holy  warfare  against  cruel  and  in- 
human whites. 

11.  The  Blessing  of  "Freedom."  Fearful  as  was 
that  War  and  as  many  and  grievous  as  were  the 
blunders  connected  with  it,  it  greatly  simplified  the 


PARTIAL  PARALYSIS  AND  RECUPERATION  188= 

work  of  making  and  maintaining  in  this  section  a 
really  Christian  civilization.  We  are  now  far  enough^ 
removed  from  1865  to  appreciate  how  greatly  God 
blessed  the  South  in  taking  away  from  it  the  clog  of 
slavery.  There  is  not  an  agency  of  missionary  up- 
lift today  whose  task  would  not  be  far  harder  if 
slavery  had  endured.  Though  the  ugliness  of  the 
anti-social  fact  of  holding  men  in  bondage  was  less 
in  the  South  than  ever  else  in  history,  and  though 
there  was  often  the  beauty  of  affection  and  loyalty 
between  owner  and  owned,  the  fact  of  slavery  had 
in  it  that  which  was  contrary  to  the  genius  of  Chris- 
tianity and  which  could  not  but  tend  to  lessen  the 
dominance  of  the  spirit  of  Christ  in  Southern 
society.  Moreover,  the  continuance  of  the  institution 
would  have  meant  the  perpetuation  and  strengthen- 
ing of  a  landed  aristocracy  and  the  impoverishment 
of  the  masses  of  the  white  people.  Though  the  re- 
lease of  the  slaves  came  in  connection  with  the 
events  which  brought  fearful  loss  to  the  religious 
life  and  of  missionary  activities  in  the  South,  those 
activities  to-day  are  much  larger  and  more  eflficient 
than  they  could  have  been  if  the  Negro  race  had 
remained  in  bondage. 

12.  Faithfulness  in  Small  Things.  A  statistical 
showing  of  State  and  Home  Mission  results  in  the 
period  from  1865  to  1885  would  not  look  impressive 
to  our  twentieth  century  eyes.  But  it  was  a  period 
of  great  faith,  untiring  patience,  and  unfailing  de- 
votion. Organization  was  maintained,  valuable  ex- 
perience was  gained,  ideals  were  developed  and  fixed 
into  determined  purpose.    Moreover,  large  tangible 


184  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

results  were  attained.  The  missionaries  of  the 
Boards  served  hundreds  of  needy  churches  as  pas- 
tors. In  each  State  these  workers  led  the  people  in 
building  and  improving  scores  of  houses  of  worship. 
They  brought  thousands  of  converts  into  the 
churches.  They  challenged  the  spirit  of  worldliness 
and  license  which  fifteen  years  of  upheaval  had  left, 
and  brought  it  into  subjection  to  the  spirit  of  right- 
eousness. They  did  an  immense  deal  to 'equip  Bap- 
tists for  the  enlarged  program  which  they  are  now 
following.  History  gives  small  heed  to  the  under- 
lying spiritual  facts  which  gird  civilization  with 
strength,  but  it  is  a  fact  tremendously  worthy  of 
record  that  the  missionary  efforts  of  Baptists  and 
other  Christian  bodies  in  that  period  made  possible 
the  vigorous  and  triumphant  South  of  today.  Up 
to  1885  Baptist  Missions  in  the  South  had  abund- 
antly justified  itself. 

TEST  QUESTIONS  ON   CHAPTER  X. 

1.  Compare  the  Reconstruction  with  the  War.  Tell  of  the 
death  of  Lincoln  and  what  followed  in  Reconstruction. 

2.  Give  the  sad  picture  of  the  program  of  folly  and  hate 
toward  the  South. 

3.  Describe  the  saturnalian  orgy  in  Southern  State  legislatures. 
Tell  of  the  Kuklux  Klan. 

4.  Give  mitigating  facts  about  the  North.  Is  the  South  loyal 
today  ? 

5.  What  chance  was  there  for  missions  to  succeed  in  such 
an  environment?  What  did  the  Associations  and  Con- 
ventions do? 

6.  Tell  of  the  revival  of  State  Missions. 

7.  Describe  the  poverty  of  resources  and  give  the  receipts 
of  various  Boards. 


PARTIAL  PARALYSIS  AND  RECUPERATION  185 

8.  Tell  of  two  happenings  which  indicated  Baptists  had 
almost  despaired.  Describe  the  harmony  with  which  the 
Home  and  State  Boards  worked. 

9.  Tell  of  the  agents  sent  out  by  Home  and  Foreign  Boards 
during  this  period.  Were  they  approved  by  the  State 
Boards? 

10.  Tell  of  the  faithful  aid  given  by  white  Christian  bodies 
to  the  Negroes.  Tell  of  the  misrepresentation  of  the  facts 
by  some  people  of  the  North. 

11.  Has  the  passing  of  slavery  been  a  blessing  to  the  South, 
and  in  what  ways? 

12.  What  was  the  outstanding  characteristic  of  the  organized 
life  of  Baptists  during  this  period?  What  of  the  value 
of  their  faithfulness  to  our  present  eflSciency? 


If  others  cannot  see  as  they  do,  then  Baptists  must  act 
as  they  see  and  not  as  others  would  see  for  them.  They 
can  do  none  other  than  stand  true  to  their  convictions  as 
to  scriptural  teaching.  They  are  perfectly  willing:  to  work 
with  other  Christian  people,  so  far  as  they  can  do  so  without 
discounting  their  own  convictions.  If  they  pause  at  any  point 
in  the  matter  of  co-operation,  it  is  because  they  have  gone 
as  far  as  they  see  their  way  to  go.  They,  do  not  seek  sep- 
aration for  the  sake  of  being  separated,  but  when  they 
reach  the  point  at  which  they  cannot  co-operate  without  the 
rejection  of  some  scriptural  teaching,  then  they  feel  it  is 
better  to  separate  than  to  sacrifice  the  truth.  They  would 
like  to  go  all  their  way  with  the  entire  Christian  host,  but 
if  in  doing  so  they  are  to  throw  overboard  any  scriptural 
doctrine  or  to  allow  others  to  prescribe  for  them  geographic 
limitations  within  which  they  are  to  confine  their  work,  then 
with  quiet  soul  and  gracious  courtesy  they  will  have  to  bow 
themselves  out  and  work  alone  in  the  Master's  name.  Over- 
tures for  co-operation  which  insidiously  look  to  the  under- 
mining of  any  distinctive  principles  for  which  the  Baptists 
stand,  must  be  treated  with  the  utmost  courtesy  but  at  the 
same  time  must  be  rejected   with  the   utmost  candor. 

Let  Baptists  stand  as  those  who  do  not  doubt.  They  must 
not  be  pushed  off  their  ground  by  the  rush  of  the  crowd. 
Let  them  co-operate  to  the  limit  of  their  liberty,  but  let  them 
not  sacrifice  the  truth  in  order  to  go  with  the  multitude.  If 
their  contention  is  true  it  can  not  be  displeasing  to  their 
Lord,  and  if  they  must  suffer  in  order  to  be  true,  let  them 
be  true  and  rejoice  that  they  are  counted  worthy  to  su£Fer. — 
William  E.  Hatcher,  D.D.,  L.L.D.,  in  The  Home  Mission  Task. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

ORGANIZATION  SERVICE  AND  SUCCESS. 

1.  Figures  and  the  Facts  of  Life.  A  brilliant 
friend,  seeing  in  The  Home  Field  an  advance  notice 
of  this  book,  wrote,  apropos  of  its  announced  his- 
torical method:  "You  are  on  the  right  track.  We 
need  facts,  not  sentiment;  information,  not  exhorta- 
tion." Encouraged  by  this  approval,  the  author  is 
still  impressed  that  the  fact-method  of  presentation 
has  distinct  limitations,  even  when  the  audience  is 
that  select  group  who  care  to  study  the  progress  of 
missions  and  religious  efficiency.  Historical  facta 
are  a  fine,  in  fact  the  only,  medium  through  which 
to  precipitate  the  spirit  of  a  people  who  have  gone 
before  and  of  their  institutions.  Yet  it  is  the  spirit 
and  the  life  we  are  after.  Exhortation  and  senti- 
ment are  almost  useless  to  this  end;  but  facts  and 
information,  to  be  useful,  must  be  selected  and  inter- 
preted with  discrimination  and  skill.  The  chief  fact 
receptacles  in  which  the  Mission  Boards  have  given 
an  account  of  their  stewardship  are  statistical  tables, 
resolutions,  and  reports.  To  the  average  reader  these 
are  unavailable  and  uninteresting.  Nevertheless 
they  lie  at  the  base  of  any  sound  philosophy  of  our 
progress  as  a  missionary  body.  They  are  the  stakes 
which  mark  the  boundaries  of  the  work  of  Zion. 
Much  tedious  exploration  lies  back  of  the  contents 
of  this  chapter.    We  shall  try  to  put  clothes  on  our 


188  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

facts,  though  the  costuming  will  require  more  space 
than  the  naked  truth  which  it  seeks  to  make  attrac- 
tive. Even  with  sympathetic  interpretation,  the 
facts  of  life  cannot  be  pressed  into  words,  and  still 
less  can  spiritual  facts  be  squeezed  into  figures. 

2.  Boards  and  Baptists.  The  Baptist  Mission 
Board  in  each  State  is  the  central  organization 
through  which  the  spiritual  potentialities  of  the  com- 
monwealth head  up  for  mission  service  in  that  State. 
It  also  more  fully  than  any  other  State  agency  ex- 
presses the  concern  of  the  supporting  body  for  inter- 
State  activities.  The  Home  Mission  Board  is  the 
creature  of  the  general  denominational  body,  through 
which  it  addresses  itself  to  a  great  task  which  is 
measurably  the  same  in  principle  as  that  of  the 
State  Board  and  often  coalesces  with  it.  Through 
the  two  agencies  each  State  looks  upon  and  serves 
its  own  needs  and  also  the  needs  of  the  whole  South. 
Back  of  these  Boards  are  the  Associations  and 
churches.  The  Boards  are  servants  of  the  denomi- 
nation and  their  greatness  is  measured  by  the  ef- 
ficiency with  which  they  gather  up  and  express  the 
spiritual  life,  the  faith  and  hope,  the  prayers  and 
sacrifices,  the  needs  and  aspirations  of  the  churches. 

3.  Autonomy  and  Co-operation.  Seventeen  State 
Boards  in  as  many  commonwealths,  one  Home  Mis- 
sion Board  in  the  central  city  of  Atlanta,  Georgia. 
These  make  up  the  simple  organization  machinery 
through  which  Baptists  of  the  South  seek  to  save 
their  own  country.  The  State  and  Home  Boards 
have  no  authority  over  each  other,  though  they  work 
largely  in  the  same  territory,  except  that  the  big- 


ORGANIZATION  SERVICE  AND  SUCCESS      189 

sister  Board  at  Atlanta  never  acts  in  the  home  State 
of  a  State  Board  without  its  approval.  True  to  the 
Baptist  spirit,  the  biggest  and  farthest  away  is  the 
servant  of  all.  Others  than  Baptists  would  expect 
the  Home  Board  as  the  general  agency  to  be  rein- 
forced by  some  kind  of  ecclesiastical  authority  over 
the  State  units  of  the  denomination.  But  it  is  the 
other  way  around  with  Baptists.  The  Home  Board 
has  much  prestige  and  influence  with  the  body  which 
it  serves,  all  that  it  needs;  but  this  it  has  entirely 
from  the  spirit  of  co-operation  and  fellowship  in  ser- 
vice which  exists  among  the  churches  of  the  de- 
nomination, and  which  expresses  itself  in  support- 
ing and  honoring  the  agency  which  serves  their  will 
in  missionary  effort.  A  similar  principle  applies  in 
the  relation  of  the  churches  to  the  State  Boards. 

4.  A  Beneficial  Relation.  Free  co-operation, 
without  ecclesiastical  authority  as  a  prop,  has  abund- 
antly justified  itself  as  a  dependable  plan  for  the 
mission  work  of  Baptists.  The  benefits  of  co-opera- 
tion have  been  incalculable,  but  hardly  greater  than 
the  separate  autonomy  of  each  State  body.  South- 
ern Baptists  have  evangelized  their  territory  more 
thoroughly  than  any  other  Christian  body  in  Amer- 
ica has  evangelized  its  territory.  If  asked  to  ac- 
count for  this  superior  success,  we  would  as  one  of 
its  chief  causes  point  to  our  complete  State  auton- 
omy, coupled  with  the  hearty  and  dependable  spirit 
of  inter-State  co-operation,  which  latter  has  no  trace 
of  centralized  control.  The  wonderful  success 
of  the  Home  Board  as  a  missionary  agency  and  its 
absolute  lack  of  a  particle  of  authority  over  any 


190  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

State  Board  or  Association  or  church,  are  a  concrete 
proof  that  the  spirit  of  co-operation  is  great  enough 
to  hold  God's  people  together  in  Kingdom  service 
without  any  central  power. 

5.  The  Churches.  Back  of  the  Boards  are  the 
churches.  Most  of  them  are  modest  organizations, 
unknown  to  fame,  far  out  in  the  open  country.  But 
in  our  Baptist  thought  each  struggling  church  in  a 
real  way  ranks  above  the  Mission  Board,  which  sends 
out  to  the  little  church  calls  for  money  and  after 
awhile  sends  out  reports  of  the  blessed  work  the 
money  accomplished.  There  are  the  churches,  about 
24,500.  About  9,000  of  them  are  non-participant  in 
mission  work.  Nearly  three-fourths  of  them  meet  for 
worship  only  once  a  month !  But  in  many  of  these, 
as  well  as  in  the  smaller  number  which  are  larger 
and  worship  oftener,  there  is  the  spirit  of  co-opera- 
tive missions,  and  in  all  of  them  there  is  the  spirit  of 
the  Lord  Jesus.  On  almost  every  hill  in  the  South 
and  in  almost  every  green  valley,  silhouetted  against 
the  skyline  in  almost  every  view  across  the  great 
plains,  and  thrusting  up  its  tower  toward  heaven 
amid  the  bustle  of  almost  every  town  and  hamlet, 
is  one  of  these  churches.  There  they  are,  and  in 
Christ  we  are  theirs  to  serve,  and  yet  we  of  the 
Boards  and  the  newspapers  write  and  they  do  not 
read.  We  speak  and  they  do  not  hear.  We  cry  and 
they  do  not  heed.  We  plan  and  devise  and  deliver 
ourselves  of  perfectly  pure  and  sane  missionary  phil- 
osophy, and  to  many  of  them  it  is  all  as  an  unknown 
tongue  babbling  murmurously  in  the  distance.  Yet 
this  mass  of  smaller  churches,  many  of  them  strug- 


ORGANIZATION  SERVICE  AND  SUCCESS      191 

gling  for  very  existence,  contains  the  larger  part  of 
our  spiritual  resources  as  a  denomination.  Have  we 
failed  to  reach  many  of  them  with  the  gospel  of 
service  and  enlargement?  They  are  still  our  breth- 
ren, holding  things  which  we  hold  to  a  far  greater 
extent  than  they  differ  from  the  rest  of  us.  Are  we 
impatient  with  them?  It  is  a  tacit  confession  of 
unfitness  to  serve  them  in  that  which  they  most  need, 
that  loving  helpfulness  which  goes  to  them  and 
shows  them  the  way  to  better  things.  As  a  group 
the  non-participant  churches  are  nearer  to  God  than 
we  will  be  if  we  are  sensorious  with  them  and  in- 
different or  blind  to  the  greatness  of  the  opportunity 
which  is  ours  to  relate  helpfully  to  even  the  least 
of  them  our  every  missionary  agency  for  serv- 
ing the  South.  A  part  of  this  service  will  be  to  get 
them  to  give  money  for  missions,  but  only  the  sec- 
ondary part.  The  primary  and  essential  part  is  to 
show  them  how  to  do  better  the  undone  job  of 
spiritualizing  the  life  of  their  own  communities. 

6.  Thirty  Years  of  Growth.  Between  1885  and 
1915  Southern  Baptists  increased  from  997,500  to 
2,588,600,  or  140  per  cent.  The  number  of  churches 
increased  from  14,102  to  24,338  and  the  Associations 
from  570  to  902.  2,806,000  were  added  to  the 
churches  by  baptism;  so  that  the  denomination  has 
made  a  net  increase  equal  to  fifty-six  per  cent,  of 
the  persons  baptized  into  the  fellowship  of  the 
churches.  In  this  thirty  years  mission  contribu- 
tions have  increased  from  $266,269  to  $1,759,821,  or 
551  per  cent.  Since  1890  the  value  of  the  church 
property  of  the  denomination  has  increased  from 


192  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

$18,000,000  to  $57,000,000.    These  figures  show  won- 
derful  growth. 

7.  Thirty  Years  of  Mission  Work.  What  part 
have  the  State  and  the  Home  Boards  had  in  this 
splendid  progress?  Making  due  allowance  for  re- 
sults in  which  both  the  State  and  Home  Boards  par- 
ticipated and  which  both  reported,  740,000  baptisms 
were  reported  by  missionaries  of  the  Boards,  twenty- 
six  per  cent,  of  the  entire  number.  In  thirty  yearg 
the  State  Boards  have  organized  4,500  churches, 
forty-five  per  cent,  of  the  entire  increase  for  the 
period.  Home  Missions  aided  in  a  part  of  this  work 
and  organized  several  hundred  churches  independ- 
ently, not  here  included.  Reports  from  State  Sec- 
retaries on  the  entire  number  of  churches  aided  by 
State  Missions,  Home  Missions  participating  in  many 
States,  are  too  incomplete  to  admit  of  exact  state- 
ment, but  they  are  complete  enough  to  indicate  that 
not  fewer  than  10,000  churches  have  been  aided  by 
Mission  Boards  within  the  last  thirty  years.  The 
number  is  probably  greater  than  that.  Within  that 
period  the  Mississippi  State  Board  aided  729 
churches,  and  within  the  last  twenty  years  the  Texas 
Board  organized  2,187  churches,  about  half  the 
entire  number  now  in  the  State. 

8.  Thirty  Tears  of  Mission  Money.  During  the 
period  $8,307,000  has  been  raised  for  State  Missions 
and  $4,658,000  for  Home  Missions,  or  a  total  of 
$12,965,000.  Hundreds  of  thousands  of  this  amount 
went  to  erect  church  buildings  and  to  the  work  in 
Cuba  and  Panama  and  to  the  Mountain  School  work. 
But,  without  subtracting  this  from  the  total  before 


ORGANIZATION  SERVICE  AND  SUCCESS      193 

making  the  estimate,  the  figures  indicate  that  a  new 
church  has  been  planted  for  every  $1,000  expended 
and  a  convert  baptized  for  every  $17.50  expended. 
The  figures  shout  in  trumpet  tones  in  token  of  the 
efficiency  of  our  Baptist  missionary  agencies.  Let 
him  who  can  think  from  figure  facts  to  spiritual 
values  do  so,  and  speak  to  this  Southern  Baptist 
people  that  they  may  know  what  great  things  God 
is  doing  for  his  people  and  for  his  religion  through 
our  missionary  agencies. 

9.  From  1885  to  1900.  It  is  a  day  of  prepared 
foods  for  the  intellectual  and  emotional  appetites, 
as  well  as  the  physical.  The  figures  in  this  chapter 
have  been  laboriously  and  painstakingly  prepared 
by  the  co-operation  of  the  State  Secretaries,  who  are 
some  of  the  busiest  and  most  responsible  men  in 
our  denomination,  but  they  are  strong  meat  and  not 
pre-digested.  The  student  is  begged  to  digest  some 
more  paragraphs  of  figures.  Let  us  divide  the  last 
thirty  years  at  the  year  1900,  so  as  to  have  two 
periods  of  fifteen  years  each.  The  first  fifteen  years 
will  be  found  to  cover  a  time  of  strengthening 
through  patient,  fruitful  service.  The  Boards  gained 
much  experience  in  serving,  which  would  be  needed 
and  severely  tested  in  the  next  fifteen  years.  It  was 
not  a  period  characterized  by  growth  in  missionary 
contributions.  In  1885  $71,000  was  given  to  Home 
Missions  and  in  1899  only  $62,000.  In  1885  $138,200 
was  given  to  State  Missions  and  in  1899  only  $130,- 
000.  Foreign  Mission  gifts  fared  better,  advancing 
from  $64,000  to  $108,000.  The  total  for  the  three 
agencies  was  $293,000  in  1885,  and  $300,000  fifteen 


194  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

years  later,  almost  the  same.  But  the  agencies  had 
increased  in  efficiency  during  this  time.  The  results 
in  baptisms  and  churches  organized  in  the  South  in 
1899  were  about  double  the  number  reported  in 
1885. 

10.  Day  of  Wheel  and  Machine.  The  twentieth 
century  opened  with  power  machinery,  means  of 
inter-communication  and  transportation,  and  other 
inventions  for  the  increased  material  comfort  and 
power  of  man,  fully  arrived  and  installed.  That 
meant  the  setting  up  of  life  conditions  which  were 
at  greater  variance  from  those  of  the  fifty  years  be- 
fore than  the  conditions  of  1850  differed  from  the 
year  when  Jamestown  was  settled.  A  rapidly  re- 
volving wheel  is  respectfully  suggested  as  an  appro- 
priate emblem  of  American  civilization  today.  As 
never  before  this  wheel  has  turned  within  the  last 
fifteen  years.  It  never  before  revolved  so  rapidly 
or  in  so  many  places  or  so  noisily  and  greedily.  It 
never  before  made  for  man  so  many  opportunities, 
both  good  and  bad,  nor  put  on  men  so  severe  a 
test  as  to  whether  human  character  is  strong  enough 
to  regulate  the  machine  which  human  ingenuity  has 
invented,  or  whether  the  machine  shall  become  a 
demon  to  maim  and  devour  men's  souls.  The  moral 
and  spiritual  forces  of  society  never  before  had  such 
an  involved  and  difficult  task  of  readjustment  put 
upon  them.  As  the  rushing  automobile,  when  its 
cushioned  but  devouring  wheels  career  through  a 
pool  of  water,  sends  a  dozen  streams  of  spatter  over 
the  landscape,  without  the  powerful  engine  or  its 
speed-intoxicated  driver  considering,  so  the  new  day 


ORGANIZATION  SERVICE  AND  SUCCESS      195 

of  the  revolving  wheel  and  the  throbbing  machine 
throws  out  into  civilization  scores  of  uncharted  prob- 
lems, each  of  which  is  a  challenge  and  sometimes 
almost  a  sneering  dare  to  every  uplift  force  which 
serves  humanity. 

11.  From  1900  to  1915.  How  have  the  missionary 
agencies  of  Southern  Baptists  demeaned  themselves 
as  servants  in  the  face  of  the  New  Civilization?  If 
they  had  been  demoralized  by  the  pressing  and  dis- 
cordant clamor  of  new  and  uncharted  problems,  and 
if,  facing  such  stress,  they  had  for  some  years  lost 
their  poise  and  efficiency,  the  cause  was  great  enough 
to  excuse  the  lapse.  But  it  was  not  so.  It  is  dif- 
ficult with  convincing  confidence  to  prognosticate 
what  the  future  historian  from  his  favored  perch  for 
measuring  perspectives  will  say  of  our  times.  But 
we  may  with  perfect  assurance  prophesy  that  he 
will  declare  that  this  was  a  period  in  which  Bap- 
tists began  to  awaken  to  the  greatness  and  reality 
of  the  obligation  which  was  on  them  to  take  and 
hold  the  South  for  Christ.  The  people  have  not 
quailed  or  become  confused  before  the  racing  wheel 
and  the  soulless  machine,  nor  any  of  the  stern  prob- 
lems which  power  machinery  has  with  insensate  in- 
difference thrust  upon  society.  The  answer  of 
Southern  Baptists  to  the  challenge  may  be  summed 
up  from  such  facts  as  the  following:  In  State  Mis- 
sion work  during  the  last  fifteen  years  they  have 
raised  and  expended  $6,207,000,  instead  of  $2,100,- 
000,  the  amount  from  1885  to  1899,  a  three-fold  in- 
crease. In  Home  Missions  they  have  raised  and 
spent  $3,684,000,  instead  of  $974,000,  for  the  fifteen 


196  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

years  preceding,  a  four-fold  increase.  For  both  they 
have  raised  $9,891,000,  instead  of  $3,074,000,  in  the 
preceding  fifteen  years. 

12.  Wonderful  Increase  in  Results.  It  would  be 
expected  that  the  severer  strains  on  the  moral  forces 
of  society  for  the  last  fifteen  years  would  have  had 
the  effect  of  lessening  the  harvest  reaped  by  the 
missionaries  sent  out  in  the  South  by  the  Baptists. 
Such  has  not  been  the  case.  Trained  in  efficiency 
and  practical  wisdom  by  the  quiet  years  which  pre- 
ceded, the  mission  agencies  of  Baptists  grappled 
with  the  heart  of  each  new  problem.  In  the  face  of 
not  a  little  subtle  misrepresentation  from  the  out- 
side, which  sought  to  demoralize  them,  they  quietly 
separated  the  wheat  from  the  abundant  propaganda 
chaff  of  each  new  problem,  and  prosecuted  their 
work  with  such  added  vigor  and  good  judgment 
that  it  showed  an  increase  not  only  equal  to  the 
brave  and  unprecedented  increase  of  support  from 
the  churches,  but  somewhat  beyond  it.  In  the  first 
fifteen  years,  after  deducting  twenty-five  per  cent, 
for  duplicates.  State  and  Home  Missions  reported 
160,800  baptisms;  during  the  second  period,  with 
duplicates  not  counted,  they  secured  579,400,  an  in- 
crease of  260  per  cent.,  while  there  was  an  increase 
of  221  per  cent,  in  monetary  receipts  for  the  same 
period.  Also  during  the  last  fifteen  years  a  far 
larger  amount  of  intensive  or  development  mission 
work  has  been  done  with  this  money,  which  cannot 
be  shown  in  brief  concrete  statement. 

13.  New  Work.  During  the  last  fifteen  years 
Southern  Baptists  have  made  a  beginning  of  cul~ 


ORGANIZATION  SERVICE  AND  SUCCESS      197 

tural  or  intensive  missions.  All  missions  is  cul- 
tural, but  before  this  period  the  cultural  idea  was 
incidental,  and  was  not  seriously  set  forth  as  a 
Kingdom  service  which  ranked  as  a  sister  to  evan- 
gelism. The  Home  Board  and  one  or  two  State 
Boards  had  felt  their  way  into  helping  a  few  moun- 
tain mission  schools,  but  that  was  all.  Neither  the 
Home  Board  or  the  State  Boards  had  in  a  large  way 
sought  to  translate  into  missionary  service  our 
Lord's  word:  ''Teaching  them  to  observe  all 
things  whatsoever."  Within  the  last  fifteen  years 
gratifying  progress  has  been  made.  In  eight 
States  the  State  and  Home  Boards  conduct  to- 
gether definite  intensive  missionary  effort  for  the 
churches.  In  some  States  much  has  been  done 
through  assoeiational  missionaries  and  other  special 
efforts.  In  thirty-four  mountain  schools  and  six 
foreigner  schools  the  Home  Board  is  developing  the 
minds  of  youth  in  an  atmosphere  saturated  with  the 
spirit  of  service.  In  addition  the  Sunday  School 
Board  has  entered  this  field  through  teacher  train- 
ing, and  in  many  places  a  new  trial  is  being  made 
of  the  one-day-at-a-place  campaign  of  speeches  full 
of  high  idealism,  a  method  which  usefully  touches 
the  hem  of  the  garment  of  intensive  missions,  but 
which  is  in  danger  of  adding  to  the  difficulty  of 
teaching  our  people  that  intensive  missions  is  a  lov- 
ing, patient  helpfulness  which  shows  them  how,  and 
not  simply  the  giving  of  a  quick  and  large  dose  of 
fine  idealism  to  folk  who  already  have  more  than 
they  have  digested  or  learned  to  practice.  The  prime 
essential  in  helping  the  tardy  churches  is  to  aid  each 


198  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

of  them  to  do  the  whole  job  of  saving  its  own  com- 
munity and  of  imparting  to  its  life  an  adequate 
spiritual  dynamic.  Anything  less  is  likely  to  be  more 
of  a  campaign  for  missions  than  a  general  work  of 
enlargement. 

14.  Present  Strength  of  the  Boards.  Striking 
as  is  the  growth  shown  by  the  two  periods  of  fifteen 
years,  it  is  even  greater  than  that.  State  Mission 
receipts  have  increased  from  $71,000  in  1899  to  $622,- 
500  in  1914,  nearly  800  per  cent.  The  receipts  for 
State  Missions  in  1914  were  nearly  one-third  as  large 
as  the  entire  receipts  from  1885  to  1899.  Home  Mis- 
sions has  shown  a  like  remarkable  growth,  having 
increased  from  $72,000  in  1899  to  $387,000  in  1915, 
440  per  cent.  Within  the  last  three  years  Southern 
Baptists  have  given  $128,000  more  to  Home  Missions 
than  they  did  during  the  fifteen  years  from  1885  to 
1899.  Equally  impressive  are  the  results  of  the 
work.  The  Home  Board  in  1914  and  1915  reported 
9,000  more  converts  baptized  than  it  did  between 
1885  and  1899,  and  in  1914  the  State  Boards  re- 
ported more  than  one-fourth  as  many  baptisms  as 
in  the  fifteen  years  beginning  in  1885.  After  count- 
ing out  baptisms  reported  in  duplicate  by  the  Home 
and  State  Boards  last  year,  and  also  the  Negro  bap- 
tisms and  those  in  Cuba  and  Panama,  the  Home  and 
State  Board  missionaries  performed  65,000  baptisms, 
which  was  forty-three  per  cent,  of  the  entire  num- 
ber of  baptisms  reported  by  the  churches  for  the 
same  year. 

15.  Mission  Churches  Support  Missions.  Churches 
established  by  State  and  Home  Missions  are  almost 


ORGANIZATION  SERVICE  AND  SUCCESS      199 

invariably  supporters  of  missions  and  of  all  the  or- 
ganized work  of  the  denomination.  Diligent  in- 
quiry from  State  Secretaries,  who  have  had  better 
opportunity  than  any  one  else  to  make  observations, 
has  elieted  the  remarkable  information  that  not  less 
than  sixty  per  cent,  of  all  the  money  expended  for 
all  mission  work  today  comes  from  churches  which 
were  in  their  time  of  need  aided  by  State  Missions 
and  often  by  Home  Missions.  North  Carolina,  Ar- 
kansas, and  Georgia  report  sixty-six  per  cent,  as  the 
amount  of  mission  money  which  comes  from  such 
churches,  Virginia  and  Kentucky  seventy-five  per 
cent,  and  Florida  fifty  per  cent.  Other  States  did 
not  report.  These  estimates  have  been  made  by 
brethren  who  know  the  situation.  Apparently  the 
average  would  be  more  than  sixty-six  per  cent.,  but 
at  sixty  per  cent,  we  have  the  amazing  result  of 
crediting  $1,000,000  of  the  $1,700,000  given  last  year 
to  missions,  to  churches  which  were  organized  or 
nursed  into  strength  by  State  and  Home  Missions. 
Though  the  result  can  only  be  reached  through  ap- 
proximation, it  is  nevertheless  trustworthy.  It  con- 
stitutes an  appeal  which  ought  to  impress  men  more 
than  the  most  eloquent  speech. 

16.  Conserving  Sound  Doctrine.  There  are  cer- 
tain incidental  ways  in  which  Home  and  State  Mis- 
sions render  most  important  service  to  the  denom- 
ination, outside  of  the  specific  tasks  committed  to 
them.  One  of  these  is  the  conservation  of  sound 
doctrine.  It  is  not  theirs  to  teach  theology,  but 
through  their  interpretation  of  the  denomination's 
spirit,  through  the  grasp  which  the  spiritual  body 


200  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

gets  on  all  and  particularly  upon  the  most  needy  of 
its  parts  in  the  work  of  these  Boards,  Baptists  have 
a  powerful  balance  wheel  to  conserve  the  truths 
which  makes  them  a  distinct  body.  So  consistently 
and  influentially  have  the  Boards  stood  for  the 
principles  of  Baptists  that  some  modern  protagonists 
of  denominational  union  have  beheld  and  understood 
and  have  scurrilously  remarked  that  these  denomina- 
tional Boards  stand  firmly  in  order  that  their  Secre- 
taries may  hold  their  jobs.  The  one  overmastering 
reason  why  a  State  Mission  Board  or  a  Home  Mis- 
sion Board  of  Baptists  inevitably  conserves  the  doc- 
trines and  principles  of  the  Christian  body  it  serves, 
is  that  every  day  in  the  year  it  feels  and  knows 
what  the  real  spirit  and  wish  of  its  supporting  body 
is,  and  it  simply  stands  for  and  interprets  that 
spirit.  The  Boards  become  the  bulwark  of  the  great 
quiet  mass  of  thinking  men  against  noisy  and  erratic 
agitators  who  propose  to  remake  the  Christian  world 
in  a  day  by  trumpeting  their  half-baked  idealism 
through  the  printed  page  and  in  whirlwind  platform 
performances. 

17.  Conserving  Group  Loyalty.  After  ten  years 
of  agitation,  the  insistent  propaganda  of  religious 
unionism  in  this  country  seems  to  be  losing  some  of 
the  edge  of  its  enthusiasm.  At  its  strongest  it  did  not 
seriously  endanger  the  Baptists,  and  now  that  the 
wave  is  receding  there  is  not  a  crack  or  break  in 
our  Baptist  sea  wall.  It  may  be  proper  to  ask,  what 
is  there  really  in  group  loyalty  which  is  bad?  We 
asked  it  often  of  the  liberalists,  but  never  got  a  satis- 
factory answer.     We  concluded  that  they  disliked 


ORGANIZATION  SERVICE  AND  SUCCESS      201 

group  loyalty  because  too  much  of  it  would  spoil 
their  carefully  groomed  plans  for  swallowing  the 
various  evangelical  bodies.  Against  the  State  and 
Home  Boards  of  Baptists  these  waves  of  sophistry 
beat  and  broke  harmless.  The  liberalists  with  a  true 
instinct  had  little  to  do  with  these  responsible  leaders 
of  Baptist  denominational  action.  In  scores  of  fra- 
ternal orders,  in  families  and  kinships,  in  business  or- 
ganizations, in  one's  town  or  State  or  nation,  group 
loyalty  is  lauded  today  perhaps  more  than  ever. 
Thank  God  that  his  people  in  the  evangelical  bodies 
are  too  wise  to  despise  the  tie  of  sweet  understand- 
ing and  fellow-helpfulness  which  is  a  fruit  of  the 
fellowship  each  has  with  the  spiritual  body  of  which 
he  is  a  member.  As  long  as  Baptists  pray  for  and 
liberally  uphold  their  Mission  Boards  in  the  work 
of  winning  the  South,  they  need  have  little  fear 
that  many  even  of  the  weak  shall  be  misled  by  the 
siren  sophistries  of  religious  liberalism. 

18.  A  Voice  for  Baptist  Ideals.  An  invaluable 
function  of  the  Boards  is  to  gather  and  express  ap- 
propriate ideals  for  their  supporting  body.  Sensi- 
tizing itself  at  once  to  the  needs  and  opportunities 
of  Baptists  to  serve  the  common  weal  and  to  their 
attitude  toward  these  things,  their  limitations,  and 
powers,  the  Mission  Board  is  expected  as  an  honored 
and  trusted  servant  to  invite  the  heart  of  its  de- 
nominational body  to  read  aright  the  signs  of  the 
times  and  to  devote  itself  to  supplying  each  new 
need  which  arises.  This  function  of  our  Mission 
Boards  in  the  South  is  of  incalculable  value  in  shap- 
ing the  ideals  of  Baptists  concerning  a  worthy  mis- 


202  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

sionary  objective  and  in  holding  a  body  which  is 
warmly  devoted  to  individualism  and  democracy  in 
substantial  unity,  through  helping  to  shape  its  parts 
to  common  purposes  and  activities.  Dr.  I.  T.  Tiche- 
nor  declared  that  the  Home  Mission  Board  between 
1882  and  1885  actually  saved  the  integrity  of  the 
Southern  Baptist  Convention  through  this  kind  of 
service.  (See  The  Home  Mission  Task,  28,  29,  and 
Baptist  Home  Missions). 

19.  A  Challenge  to  Baptists.  There  is  not  an- 
other Christian  body  in  America  which  has  been 
blessed  with  successes  that  even  approximate  those 
of  the  mission  work  of  Baptists  in  the  South.  And 
yet  there  are  many  other  great  and  honored  relig- 
ious bodies,  which  have  given  and  are  giving  most 
serious  attention  to  saving  America.  A  few  of  them 
give  somewhat  more  money  to  the  work  than  South- 
ern Baptists  do.  They  are  our  fellow-helpers  in 
winning  America  for  Christ,  and  we  are  thankful 
for  every  token  of  the  blessing  of  God  upon  their 
efforts  to  save  men.  To  Southern  Baptists  God  has 
given  primacy  in  domestic  mission  successes.  Shall 
we  not  thrill  with  gratitude  and  gird  our  hearts  to 
build  on  these  successes  a  greater  edifice  of  faith  and 
righteousness  in  Southern  life?  It  is  well  that  Bap- 
tists should  hold  to  the  right  of  criticising  their 
Mission  Boards.  It  is  a  right  which  they  should 
never  give  up,  but  one  which  should  not  be  used 
except  in  the  spirit  of  prayer  and  in  the  fear  of  God. 
In  attaining  such  unmatched  results  of  religious 
growth  and  progress  as  Mission  Boards  in  the  South 
have  attained,  both  at  home  and  across  the  seas, 


ORGANIZATION  SERVICE  AND  SUCCESS      203 

they  have  as  servants  entrusted  with  exalted  tasks 
the  same  right  to  ask  the  controling  spiritual  body 
to  rejoice  in  their  faithful  and  successful  steward- 
ship, as  they  have  to  expect  criticism  and  admoni- 
tion when  the  earnest  and  serious-minded  people  of 
the  churches  believe  they  need  it.  The  author  with 
bold  confidence  puts  the  contents  of  this  chapter  be- 
fore our  people  and  challenges  their  enthusiasm  and 
their  hearty  approval  of  an  unparalleled  work  of 
domestic  missions  accomplished  by  their  State  and 
Home  Boards.  He  confidently  asserts  that  these 
agencies  merit  the  heartiest  approval  of  their  con- 
troling bodies  for  the  noble  service  they  have  ren- 
dered. And  though  he  speaks  as  one  who  serves, 
yet  he  affirms  that  Baptists  in  the  South  cannot  with- 
out sacrificing  much  of  that  generous  and  gracious 
spirit  which  makes  it  a  privilege  to  serve  them,  re- 
fuse to  their  agencies  the  enthusiastic  and  whole- 
hearted appreciation  which  they  have  honestly  and 
abundantly  won. 

TEST  QUESTIONS  FOR  CHAPTER  XI. 

1.  What  is  necessary  in  order  that  facts  and  information  may 
be  useful?  What  are  the  chief  materials  of  the  history 
of  our  mission  work?  Are  these  available  to  the  average 
reader?    What  must  be  done  to  make  them  available? 

2.  Name  some  differences  between  the  State  Boards  and  the 
Home  Mission  Board.  Tell  what  work  the  two  agencies 
combined  seek  to  perform. 

3.  Describe  the  simple  organization  machinery  of  Baptists  for 
saving  the  South.  Has  the  Home  Board  any  authority 
over  the  State  Boards? 

4.  Describe  how  the  spirit  of  co-operation  among  Baptists  hat 


204  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

been  more  effective  than  ecclesiastical  authority.  Give  a 
concrete  evidence  of  this. 

5.  Tell  of  the  mass  of  churches  which  give  the  Boards  their 
existence  and  usefulness.  How  many  of  them  are  non- 
participant  in  missions?  How  many  of  them  have  wor- 
ship  only   once   a   month?     Describe   to   what   extent   our 

co-operative  agencies  fail  to  reach  the  churches.  What  is 
the  value  of  the  struggling  and  backward  churches?  By 
what  ties  are  we  bound  to  these  tardy  churches?  Why  is 
it  improper  to  criticise  them  unkindly? 

6.  Give  figures  to  indicate  growth  of  Baptists  between  1885 
and  1915.  Give  figures  to  show  their  growth  in  missions 
and  value  of  church  property. 

7.  Show  what  part  in  this  growth  has  been  brought  about 
by  State  and  Home  Missions.  What  proportion  of  the 
churches  have  been  organized  by  State  Boards  in  this 
period,  and  what  proportion  aided?  Give  the  record 
in  Mississippi  and  Texas. 

8.  Give  the  amount  raised  for  Home  and  State  Missions  in 
thirty  years.  How  much  has  it  cost  Southern  Baptists  for 
each  convert  baptized  through  the  Mission  Boards? 

9.  What  was  characteristic  of  mission  work  in  the  South 
from  1885  to  1900?  Was  it  a  period  of  growth  in  giving? 
Was  it  a  period  of  development  in  efficiency? 

10.  Describe  the  effect  power  machinery  and  inter-communi- 
cation have  had  on  recent  civilization.  What  is  suggested 
as  an  appropriate  emblem  of  our  civilization?  Show  how 
inventions  have  brought  both  good  and  bad  for  man  and 
how  this  is  a  severe  test  of  character. 

11.  Tell  of  the  difficulties  of  mission  work  during  the  last 
fifteen  years.  Give  facts  and  figures  to  show  increase  of 
missionary  liberality. 

12.  Give  facts  and  figures  to  show  marvelous  increase  in 
Home  and  State  Mission  results  during  the  last  fifteen 
years. 

13.  Tell  about  cultural  or  intensive  missions.  Tell  about  the 
Enlistment  work  of  the  Home  Mission  Board  and  State 
Boards,    the    Mountain    Schools    and     Foreigner     Schools. 


ORGANIZATION  SERVICE  AND  SUCCESS      205 

Give  the  distinction  between  Enlistment  work  and  church 
campaigns. 

14.  Show  the  increase  in  State  Missions  from  1899  to  1914. 
Show  the  increase  in  Home  Missions.  Give  other  figures 
to  indicate  the  greatness  of  the  growth. 

15.  What  per  cent,  of  the  money  expended  for  mission  work 
by  Southern  Baptists  comes  from  churches  which  have 
been  aided  at  some  time  by  State  and  Home  Missions? 
Give  the  figures  for  different  States.  How  much  of  the 
money  raised  for  missions  in  1915  came  from  such 
churches  ? 

16.  Show  how  Home  Missions  and  State  Missions  conserve 
the  doctrinal  principles  of  Baptists.  Show  how  they 
are  specially  fitted  for  this. 

17.  Show  how  the  Mission  Boards  minister  to  denominational 
group  loyalty.  Is  there  anything  about  group  loyalty 
which  is  bad?  Give  your  opinion  as  to  the  reason  why 
religious  liberalists  cry  against  group  loyalty  in  religiot 
in  the  same  day  in  which  it  is  growing  in  every  other 
circle. 

18.  Show  how  Home  and  State  Boards  are  of  great  value  as 
voices  for  Baptist  ideas.  What  service  did  the  Home  Mis- 
sion Board  render  between  1882  and  1885? 

19.  Has  any  other  Christian  body  in  America  been  blessed 
with  mission  successes  at  home  which  approximate  those 
of  Southern  Baptists?  What  obligation  does  our  primacy 
in  saving  the  people  put  upon  Baptists?  What  challenge 
may  the  Boards  properly  make  to  their  controlling  body? 
What  is  your  own  opinion  of  the  success  of  Home  and 
State  Missions? 


Democracy  presupposes  a  prevailing  morality  and  intelli- 
gence; for  if  these  are  not  in  the  ascendency,  good  govern- 
ment cannot  be  guaranteed  by  popular  vote.  Democracy  is 
of  religious  origin  and  puts  a  premium  upon  character  and 
general  intelligence.  The  Creator  never  intended  that  ignor- 
ance and  immorality  should  rule  intelligence  and  morality. 
Therefore,  under  the  divine  providence,  the  doctrine  of  per- 
sonal religion  was  the  forerunner  of  the  doctrine  of  personal 
rights.  The  Christian  experience  is  the  forebear  of  the 
democratic   principles.     *    •    » 

The  Roman  religion  is  incompatible  with  democracy,  while 
evangelical  religion  is  its  inspiration.  We  shall  revive 
democracy  when  we  revive  religion,  and  the  deepening  of 
religious  life  of  the  people  means  the  heightening  of  the 
spirit   of  democracy   in   the   nation. 

There  can  be  no  long  life  for  civil  liberty  without  a 
religion  specially  tempered  to  enforce  the  responsibility  of 
liberty.  Liberty  runs  to  license  and  society  dissolves  into 
chaos  without  an  overawing  sense  of  personal  responsibility 
for  the  proper  use  of  liberty.  Religion  is  the  spiritual  bond 
which  binds  into  homogenous  nationality  a  community  of 
separate  and  independent  individuals. — James  F.  Love,  D.D., 
in  The  Mission  of  our  Nation. 

The  last  fifty  years  witnessed  the  making  of  a  dozen  new 
commonwealths  beyond  the  Mississippi;  the  next  fifty  years 
will  witness  the  remaking  of  a  dozen  old  commonwealths 
South  of  the  Mason  and  Dixon's  line.  As  the  epic  of  the 
Nineteenth  Century  was  the  winning  of  the  West,  so  the  epic 
of  the  Twentieth  Century  will  be  the  development  of  the 
South.— Clarence  H.   Poe,  in  World's  Work. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

THE  PAST  AND  FUTURE. 

1.  The  Past.  Though  we  can  live  and  act  only 
in  the  present,  both  the  past  and  the  future  have 
claims  on  us,  the  past  for  its  lessons  and  the  future 
with  its  opportunities  and  obligations.  Cicero  said 
that  not  to  know  what  has  been  done  in  the  past  is 
always  to  be  as  a  child,  and  Emerson  that  the  sole 
terms  upon  which  the  past  can  become  usefully  ours 
is  to  subordinate  it  to  the  present.  Baptists  have  a 
saying  that  they  have  been  so  busy  making  history 
that  they  have  had  no  time  to  write  it.  It  would 
be  truer  to  say  that  they  have  been  very  influentially 
busy  making  history,  but  so  few  of  them  have  ap- 
preciated the  importance  of  studying  their  history 
that  writers  have  been  discouraged  from  writing  it. 
This  seeming  indifference  is  not  to  the  credit  of 
Baptists.  For  what  is  past  is  not  more  certain  than 
that  what  is  future  will  grow  out  of  that  which  is 
past.  This  book  has  essayed  to  present  in  tabloid 
form  outstanding  facts  in  the  saving  impact  of  a 
great  Christian  body  on  the  life  of  the  country.  It 
is  a  record  of  events  which  are  for  our  instruction 
and  inspiration,  a  story  of  trial  and  suffering,  of 
hope  and  aspiration,  of  failure  and  success,  of  in- 
dividualism struggling  through  an  uncharted  wilder- 
ness toward  co-operation,  of  weary  years  of  dire 
prophecies  that  organization  for  service  would  prove 


208  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

to  be  a  Trojan  horse,  filled  with  armed  and  relent- 
less myrmidons  of  ecclesiastical  tyranny,  and  an 
equal  number  of  years  in  which  the  event  disproved 
the  prediction — partly,  no  doubt,  because  the  in- 
sistent predictions  made  organization  heedful.  Of 
these  and  many  other  like  things  is  our  past  in  the 
South.  Since  what  we  are  now  is  linked  to  what 
we  were  yesterday  as  one  part  of  a  living  organism 
to  another,  it  is  desirable  that  we  should  know  the 
past.  This  book  will  partly  fail  of  its  purpose  if  the 
reader  shall  not  from  it  gather  a  desire  to  know 
more  of  the  history  of  Southern  Baptists. 

2.  God  Led.  Every  chapter  of  this  book  is  the 
story  of  how  God  led  a  spiritual  body.  The  whole 
book  together  is  a  brief  setting  forth  of  how  God 
took  a  people  who  were  weak  and  despised  and  so 
strengthened  and  increased  and  instructed  them  by 
the  lessons  of  his  Book  and  of  the  passing  years,  that 
they  became  a  mighty  power  in  his  hands  to  in- 
fluence the  life  of  the  Republic  and  the  world.  Their 
preachers,  regardless  of  salary  or  support,  in  spite 
of  persecution,  derision,  and  contempt,  were  flaming 
evangels  of  the  cross  in  the  pioneer  countryside. 
With  every  worldly  influence  against  them,  they 
won  the  people  and  in  Virginia  marshalled  them  so 
well  that  they  utterly  destroyed  established  relig- 
ion. Practically  without  exception  they  were  Revo- 
lutionary patriots.  Cornwallis  singled  their  preach- 
ers out  for  special  punishment  and  Washington's 
armies  were  thronged  with  them.  God  used  them  to 
bring  civil  liberty  and  soul  liberty  in  America.  Their 
numbers  grew.     Their  churches  dotted  a  thousand 


THE  PAST  AND  FUTURE  209 

landscapes.  Feeling  the  pull  of  a  yearning  for  fel- 
lowship with  their  kind,  the  churches  formed  As- 
sociations. Feeling  impelled  to  co-operation  in  mis- 
sion service,  the  State  Conventions  were  formed.  In 
both  instances,  there  was  much  fear  lest  church  au- 
tonomy should  suffer.  There  was  the  long  drawn 
out  fight  of  missions  and  anti-missions,  of  education 
and  anti-education,  and  the  jealousy  for  autonomy 
lived  and  thrived  and  is  living  now,  keen-eyed  and 
alert.  There  were  twenty  years  of  development  and 
devastation,  followed  by  twenty  of  partial  paralysis 
and  recuperation  and  fifteen  more  of  the  organized 
mission  work  gaining  strength  and  wisdom  through 
patient  service.  Then,  after  100  years,  came  a 
period  of  pronounced  growth  in  missionary  activi- 
ties— the  last  fifteen  years.  Through  a  century  of 
leading  and  training,  God  has  so  prepared  Baptists 
that,  instead  of  being  demoralized  by  the  marvelous 
changes  wrought  by  the  New  Civilization,  their  work 
has  fared  forward  as  never  before. 

3.  Trembling  and  Courage.  Our  past  may  well 
make  us  tremble,  while  at  the  same  time  it  should 
fill  every  Baptist  heart  with  courage  and  confidence. 
With  thousands  of  local  churches  as  our  units  of 
supreme  authority,  with  most  of  them  small  churches, 
many  of  them  struggling  churches,  and  with  no 
desire  or  prospect  that  our  body  will  ever  acknowl- 
edge any  authority  between  the  local  church  and  the 
God  we  serve,  see  what  wonderful  things  God  has 
done  for  and  with  us  in  the  growth  of  denomina- 
tional consciousness,  in  co-operative  effort  in  mis- 
sions and  education,  and  in  keeping  us  in  substantial 


210  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

doctrinal  unity,  so  that  we  can  walk  together  be- 
cause we  are  agreed.  Democrats  of  the  democrats, 
yet,  even  more  than  with  other  uplift  workers,  every 
Baptist  victory  for  progress,  excepting  the  glorious 
fight  for  religious  liberty,  when  every  Baptist  stood 
together  to  the  end,  has  been  with  God's  help  won 
by  the  minority.  God  has  led  us;  therefore  our 
courage.  If  our  faith  is  great  enough,  we  shall  ex- 
pect God  to  lead  us  now  when  strange,  new,  and  un- 
tried enemies  of  spirituality  are  blocking  the  way  to 
progress.  God  of  our  fathers,  give  us  faith  to  trust 
thee  now,  for  otherwise  before  the  mountainous  dif- 
ficulties of  our  strange  New  Day,  we  cannot  but 
tremble!  Without  thee  our  best  thoughts  shall  be 
as  naught  against  the  many  new  angles  through 
which  sin  and  pleasure  seek  access  to  human  hearts. 
4.  What  of  the  Future?  We  can  only  judge  the 
future  by  the  past  and  present.  What  of  the  future 
religious  life  of  the  South?  On  each  of  a  half  score 
of  problems  which  condition  the  present  and  future 
many  whole  books  are  written.  On  each  of  them 
sermons  are  preached  and  more  sermons  ought  to  be 
preached.  In  the  closing  paragraphs  of  this  book 
it  will  scarcely  be  possible  even  to  sketch  the  ques- 
tions of  first  magnitude  which  press  upon  society  for 
solution.  With  36,000,000  population,  10,000,000  of 
whom  are  Negroes,  4,000,000  of  foreign  parentage, 
and  22,000,000  of  white  American  parentage,  the 
South  has  11,000,000  members  of  evangelical  denom- 
inations and  2,000,000  Catholic  population.  Of  the 
11,000,000  nearly  5,000,000  are  Baptists.  Baptists 
have  their  greatest  opportunity  and  responsibility 


THE  PAST  AND  FUTURE  211 

in  the  South  to  show  the  world  what  their  principles 
are  worth  to  mankind.  With  immense  wealth  already 
accumulated,  students  of  economics  assure  us  we  are 
only  at  the  beginning  of  the  piling  up  of  rich  stores 
of  material  bounty.  Inventions  and  power  machinery 
have  made  one  man  equal  a  dozen  in  productivity. 
Is  the  faith  of  Southern  Christians  virile  enough  to 
spiritualize  such  a  day  as  this? 

5.  Rural  Life  and  Churches.  Nearly  eighty  per 
cent  of  the  Southern  population  is  rural.  Once  rural 
life  reached  out  only  to  the  borders  of  the  local  com- 
munity, and  the  quiet  life  induced  meditation  and 
out  of  meditation  came  prophets  and  men  with  poets' 
souls.  Now  country  life  in  its  power  for  large  con- 
tacts has  measurably  become  cosmopolitan,  as  well 
as  the  city.  Enlarged  contacts  have  in  many  places 
lessened  the  countryman's  sense  of  responsibility 
for  the  local  welfare.  In  many  sections  the  well-to- 
do  farmer  has  moved  to  town  and  tenants  are  left 
behind  on  the  old  home  place.  The  country  church, 
hitherto  the  great  source  of  Southern  Baptist  life 
in  preachers  for  our  pulpits,  students  for  our  col- 
leges, members  for  our  city  churches,  and  men  and 
women  for  exacting  city  tasks,  as  weU  as  for  coun- 
try life  itself,  is  in  many  places  suffering  because 
the  withdrawal  of  resources  to  help  to  leaven  city 
life  is  greater  than  even  its  large  power  to  replace. 
But  in  the  South  it  is  not  often  decadent  country 
churches  that  trouble  Baptists.  It  is  undeveloped 
country  churches.  It  is  nonsense  to  talk  about  de- 
cadent country  churches,  when  we  remember  that 
Southern    Baptists   have   more   than    16,000   such 


212  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

churches  today  which  have  managed  somehow  to 
live  for  many  years  on  the  near-starvation 
diet  of  once-a-month  preaching.  The  greatest  prac- 
tical opportunity  which  lies  immediately  before 
Southern  Baptists  today  is  to  inspire  and  help  this 
great  mass  of  their  churches  into  a  fuller  life,  a 
more  efficient  service  to  their  own  communities  and 
an  enlarged  spiritual  contact,  which  will  safeguard 
their  members  from  being  demoralized  by  the 
worldly  appeal  of  their  new  cosmopolitanism.  State 
and  Home  Missions  have  done  an  immense  service 
for  these  churches,  and  now  must  do  a  greater  still. 

6.  Church  Building.  With  church  property  valued 
at  $57,000,000,  yet  an  average  of  one  in  every  seven 
of  our  Southern  Baptist  churches  has  no  house  of 
worship.  The  need  of  these  struggling  bodies  cries 
out  for  our  help.  Many  of  them  would  become  vig- 
orous power  houses  for  Christ  if  they  were  encour- 
aged by  some  aid  from  the  denomination  at  large. 
State  and  Home  Missions  are  equally  interested  in 
remedying  this  enormous  lack,  though  most  of  the 
States  have  turned  over  entirely  to  the  Home  Board 
the  work,  while  all  of  them  are  supporting  the  effort 
of  this  Board  to  raise  a  $1,000,000  Loan  Fund.  This 
is  an  effort  which  should  appeal  mightily  to  our 
people.  For  them  to  remain  unequipped  is  to  leave 
every  moral  and  spiritual  problem  of  the  day  with- 
out that  adequacy  of  saving  impact  for  which 
Baptists  may  rightly  be  held  accountable. 

7.  The  Negro.  The  Southern  white  man  cannot 
with  his  family  and  white  neighbors  develop  in 
moral  and  spiritual  worth,  if  he  leaves  the  black 


THE  PAST  AND  FUTURE  213 

people  who  live  about  him  to  fall  prey  to  disease 
and  sin.  The  white  man  cannot  go  to  heaven,  while 
he  leaves  the  black  to  journey  toward  the  pit.  The 
Negro  has  made  substantial  progress  in  fifty  years 
and  the  best  whites  have  helped  him.  It  is  embarrass- 
ing to  confess  it,  but  there  are  thousands  of  whites 
who  have  their  names  on  our  church  rolls,  who  have 
not  the  spirit  of  Christ  toward  the  Negro.  Every 
Southern  pulpit  ought  to  declare  the  whole  counsel  of 
God  concerning  the  duty  of  the  strong  to  the  weak, 
the  advanced  to  the  lowly  and  backward,  the  white 
to  the  Negro.  Our  Mission  Boards  are  helping  the 
Negroes,  and  our  mature  and  responsible  leadership 
has  ever  been  the  Negro's  friend.  The  Home  Mis- 
sion Board  has  during  all  its  career  done  much  to 
help  the  Negroes  through  missionary  work.  For  a 
number  of  years  past  it  has  had  about  forty  mission- 
aries among  them  and  for  several  years  through  its 
Evangelistic  Department  it  has  conducted  a  most 
promising  work  for  saving  and  training  the  Negroes 
and  bringing  their  churches  closer  to  the  white 
churches  in  sympathy.  Southern  Baptists  have  also 
taken  steps  to  establish  a  theological  seminary  for 
the  black  brethren.  But  Baptists  have  also  an 
obligation  so  to  interpret  the  will  of  Christ  concern- 
ing our  relations  to  the  blacks,  that  men  and  women 
shall  know  that  they  cannot  really  follow  Jesus, 
if  they  practice  injustice  toward  Negroes.  A  church 
member  who  advocates  or  winks  at  lynchings  or 
condones  devices  for  cheating  or  in  the  courts  impos- 
ing upon  the  least  of  these,  is  not  fit  to  be  in  a  church. 
Southern  Christian  bodies  must  do  more  through 


214  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

their  missionary  agencies  to  save  the  Negro,  but  of 
greater  importance  is  it  that  every  pulpit  shall  ring 
with  the  truth  of  Christ  concerning  our  duty  to  the 
Negro  and  every  church  become  a  center  of  moral 
stamina,  demanding  that  its  own  members  shall  keep 
themselves  clean  from  the  sin  of  oppressing  the 
weak.  The  Negro  cannot  in  the  South  be  allowed 
to  journey  downward  without  dragging  the  white 
man  with  him.  This  fundamental  fact  is  of  tremen- 
dous importance  and  should  often  be  expounded  and 
enforced  in  twenty  thousand  Baptist  pulpits  in  the 
South. 

8.  The  Immigrant.  The  immigrant  is  bringing 
fearful  pressure  to  bear  upon  the  moral  and  spiritual 
resources  of  America.  He  has  transformed  into 
something  other  than  themselves  whole  sections  of 
the  country.  New  England,  proud  of  her  Puritan 
descent,  proud  of  her  intellect,  confident  in  her 
political  programs,  and  not  very  considerate  of  or 
respectful  toward  other  forces  and  sections  than  her 
own  which  have  made  America  great — ^behold  New 
England  today  with  her  Puritanism  overwhelmed 
by  Romanism  and  her  boasted  intellect  crowded  into 
ever  lessening  coteries  by  the  ignorant  and  the  alien, 
Goths  and  Huns,  working  in  the  vast  manufacturing 
hives  of  New  England.  New  England  gave  herself 
to  help  make  America,  but  is  now  apparently  allow- 
ing herself  to  be  swallowed  up  by  an  unassimilated 
horde  of  foreigners,  in  order  that  she  may  from  their 
labor  make  gold.  Great  cities  not  in  New  England 
are  crowded  with  the  aliens;  millions  and  millions 
of  them  in  America.    During  the  present  European 


THE  PAST  AND  FUTURE  216 

war  Americans  are  being  treated  to  the  humiliating 
spectacle  of  the  fruits  of  a  patriotism  which  did  not 
see  beyond  the  dollar  mark.  Thousands  of  men  from 
the  warring  nations,  let  into  this  country  through 
our  ever-open  gates,  are  plotting  for  their  former 
countries  in  utter  disregard  of  the  interests  of  the 
great  Republic  to  which  they  have  come.  God  grant 
that  the  humiliating  spectacle  may  put  our  states- 
men to  serious  thinking,  so  many  of  whom  have  here- 
tofore not  seemed  to  see  danger  so  long  as  the  open 
door  policy  meant  more  cheap  workers  for  American 
industries.  In  the  South  are  4,000,000  of  these  for- 
eigners. It  is  the  opportunity  and  obligation  of 
Southern  Christian  bodies  to  save  and  make  Ameri- 
cans of  these,  while  at  the  same  time  we  use  every 
right  influence  to  get  the  government  to  put  proper 
restrictions  around  immigration,  restrictions  which 
shall  breathe  a  spirit  of  patriotism  and  moral  valua- 
tion higher  than  the  purpose  to  coin  dollars  out  of 
the  newcomers. 

9.  City  and  Town.  So  proud  have  we  been  of 
the  new  period  in  the  South  in  which  we  have  more 
cities  than  we  used  to  have,  that  almost  every  town 
is  in  a  race  with  some  other  town  to  see  how  many 
manufacturing  plants  it  can  get,  which  will  bring  in 
new  people  to  count  in  the  next  census  and  to  trade 
in  the  stores  with  their  earnings.  The  South  is 
noted  for  a  past  of  high  idealism.  But  what  of  the 
present?  What  of  a  Southern  day  when  supposed 
industrial  advantage  is  often  the  last  word  and 
sometimes  seemingly  the  only  thought  which  directs 
the  course  of  our  growth !    We  have  within  twenty- 


216  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

five  years  past  brought  into  towns  and  cities  to 
work  in  factories  and  mills,  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  people  from  the  farms.  Instead  of  studying  the 
moral  and  spiritual  dangers  involved,  we  have  been 
like  children  playing  with  a  new  toy.  One  of  the 
first  preachments  which  developed  concerning  some 
of  our  factory  towns  was  that  the  operatives  are 
better  off  in  their  crowded,  usually  yardless,  and 
barren  cottages,  attuning  their  whole  lives  to  the 
great  bell  and  whirring  wheels  of  the  mill,  than  they 
were  in  their  modest  country  home  or  humble  moun- 
tain cottage.  There  was  enough  truth  in  this  to 
make  it  more  dangerous  than  an  absolute  untruth. 
But  it  was  sadly  symptomatic  that  this  defensive 
dogma  came  usually  from  persons  financially  inter- 
ested in  the  new  regime  and  came  before  any  South- 
ern people  had  criticised  the  new  system.  It  is 
creditable  to  the  management  of  the  cotton  mills  that 
not  a  few  of  them  are  now  making  serious  efforts  to 
improve  the  living  condition  of  operatives.  We 
should  give  the  heartiest  recognition  to  this  good 
work.  At  the  same  time  the  religious  bodies  should 
make  it  perfectly  clear  that  they  reserve  the  right 
to  discuss  publicly  what  should  be  done  for  the  wel- 
fare of  the  people  in  these  cotton  mill  settlements. 
Both  the  political  sanity  and  the  spiritual  life  of  the 
people  in  several  States  are  involved.  In  the  slums 
of  the  larger  cities  the  conditions  are  worse  still. 
May  the  Lord  enable  Southern  Christian  bodies  to 
take  hold  of  these  moral  liabilities  of  society  in  a 
way  which  shall  make  them  assets.  Some  day  so- 
ciety will  outgrow  its  rather  childish  glee  in  pulling 


THE  PAST  AND  FUTURE  217 

people  into  cities  to  count  and  exploit,  and  will  put 
the  manufacturing  plants  out  in  the  open  country 
where  there  is  room  for  better  living  conditions,  and 
will  reserve  the  cities  for  trade  and  barter,  which  is 
chiefly  what  they  are  good  for,  while  there  are  many 
things  they  are  bad  for,  to  the  point  of  bitterness, 
dead  souls,  and  despair. 

10.  Social  Service.  Egoism  is  selfishness  in  full 
flower;  Socialism  is  an  over-done  exaltation  of  mass 
welfare.  Somewhere  in  between  lies  the  truth. 
Christ  has  shown  where,  but  men  of  much  learning 
who  have  never  found  Christ,  wander  in  their  books 
and  theories  in  an  endless  lot  of  philosophical  disser- 
tations, to  land  with  those  who  follow  them  in  the 
ditch.  Their  diagnosis  is  frequently  good  and  their 
proposed  treatment  is  often  beautiful,  but  it  lacks 
dynamic  force.  Usually  it  is  impatient  with  the 
religion  of  Christ  and  discredits  its  institutions  and 
accepted  spokesmen.  Social  science  in  hundreds  of 
books  has  set  forth  its  prescriptions  for  human  sal- 
vation, but  still  the  words  of  Jesus  to  the  individual 
soul  are  the  only  power  that  saves.  Their  philoso- 
phy is  beautiful  of  brotherly  love  and  justice  and 
public  hygiene  and  of  the  relation  of  capital  and 
labor,  but  when  they  have  with  great  care  and  learn- 
ing set  down  the  last  word,  poor,  sin-cursed  hu- 
manity proceeds  in  the  way  of  each  man  for  himself 
and  the  devil  take  the  hindermost.  Men  read  the 
Utopian  schemes  of  earnest  humanitarian  writers 
and  sigh  with  longing,  but  straightway  return  to 
their  social  practice  of  the  jungle  law  of  tooth  and 
claw.    The  inter-relations  of  men  are  more  involved 


218  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

and  far-reaching  than  ever  before.  War  declared  in 
Germany  today  causes  the  widow's  son,  sole  de- 
pendence for  the  support  of  his  family,  to  lose  his 
job  in  Birmingham,  Alabama,  next  week.  There- 
fore religious  leaders  must  study  social  science.  But 
with  all  its  varied  budget  of  preachment,  it  is  as 
helpless  as  the  burnished  locomotive  just  from  the 
shops  without  steam.  It  is  well  if  the  engineer  can 
understand  the  relation  of  every  bolt,  wheel,  rod 
and  pipe,  but  his  prime  concern  will  be  to  have 
steam  in  the  boiler.  Social  science  is  as  useful  to  the 
preacher  as  the  scientific  knowledge  of  soils  and 
manures  and  plant  life  are  to  the  farmer.  It  is  all 
helpful,  but  the  great  desiderata  are  the  plow  and 
the  power  that  makes  it  go.  Our  day  dreams  much 
of  a  social  utopia.  Our  day  needs  Christ,  and  with 
Christ  to  walk,  each  man  among  his  fellows,  in  the 
spirit  of  loving  helpfulness.  Without  Christ  all  our 
philosophy  fails.  With  the  name  of  Christ,  but  with- 
out his  Spirit,  our  churches  and  church  members 
fail.  Social  salvation,  like  individual  salvation, 
is  in  Jesus  Christ  and  only  in  him.  But,  while  we 
must  reject  the  extreme  preachments  of  official 
Socialism  and  much  which  some  extreme  Christian 
writers  propose,  we  must  also  recognize  that  the 
larger  contacts  of  the  New  Civilization  demand  of  us 
a  study  and  an  effort  to  apply  to  our  times  the  social 
teachings  of  the  gospel. 

11.  The  Individual.  There  is  no  individual  sal- 
vation except  through  faith  in  Jesus  Christ,  through 
whom  the  soul  has  a  re-birth.  After  twenty  cen- 
turies this  is  still  foolishness  to  the  Greeks  of  cul- 


THE  PAST  AND  FUTURE  219 

ture  and  learning  and  a  stumbling  block  to  the 
Hebrews  of  religious  formalism,  but  it  is  the  power 
of  God  unto  salvation,  both  to  the  individual  and 
to  society.  The  pioneer  Baptist  preacher  of  a  hun- 
dred years  ago  never  heard  of  social  service,  but 
he  proclaimed  a  message  that  transformed  the  rough 
and  the  wicked  of  the  frontier  into  the  pure  and  the 
good.  It  made  over  society  through  made-over  men. 
That  early-day  prophet  would  rub  his  eyes  in  amaze- 
ment if  he  could  see  what  changes  have  taken  place 
in  the  country  he  put  in  the  right  path  a  century 
ago,  but  the  gospel  he  preached  then  is  the  only 
gospel  with  dynamic  power  to  make  the  wheels  of 
social  righteousness  turn  today.  If  we  are  to  have 
a  great  nation,  we  must  have  great  individual  men, 
who  are  wise  and  strong  and  good.  It  is  well  to 
make  it  easy  to  do  right  and  difficult  to  do  wrong. 
We  must  remove  the  stumbling  block  from  before 
our  brothers.  But  it  is  better  to  help  one's  brother 
to  be  so  much  of  a  man  that  he  will  quit  stumbling 
over  everything  and  whining  at  every  difficulty.  It 
is  fashionable  in  our  day  for  evil  doers  to  blame 
every  institution  and  everybody  before  themselves. 
The  churches  of  Christ  are  blamed  and  censured 
by  poor  souls  who  really  ought  to  thank  the  churches 
for  having  pointed  the  world  to  the  only  source  of 
goodness  and  of  spiritual  power.  Society  is  blamed 
too  much  for  the  individual's  flabby  moral  nature. 
Baptists,  who  have  always  exalted  the  individual, 
have  a  great  opportunity  to  preach  the  gospel  of 
individual  salvation,  which  is  the  only  hope  of  a 
dynamic  adequate  for  social  betterment.    We  must 


220  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

help  the  weak  and  needy.  The  Salvation  Army  is 
doing  a  great  and  good  work,  in  which  the  churches 
should  have  a  larger  participancy.  But  we  must 
make  men  strong  as  well  as  pull  the  fallen  out  of 
the  gutter,  and  we  cannot  make  them  strong  by 
encouraging  them  to  unload  the  blame  of  their  sins 
on  society. 

12.  Respect  for  Authority.  Our  mission  in  the 
South  cannot  be  filled  until  the  gospel  we  preach 
helpfully  and  powerfully  relates  itself  to  the  or- 
dained powers  that  be.  We  preach  individual  sal- 
vation, not  individual  anarchism.  For  the  frequency 
of  mob  law  in  the  South;  for  the  miscarriage  of 
justice  in  our  courts ;  for  the  demagogue  in  politics, 
thriving  in  the  mid-week  by  stirring  the  baser  pas- 
sions and  prejudices  of  people  whom  we  preached 
to  and  baptized  on  Sunday,  the  Christian  bodies  of 
the  South  must  assume  a  large  measure  of  respon- 
sibility, and  Baptists  more  than  others,  because  of 
their  large  number.  Our  Baptist  forbears  won  re- 
ligious liberty  and  heroically  fought  the  battles  of 
political  liberty  in  America.  These  great  institutions 
of  human  rights  are  on  trial  in  the  Republic.  If 
red-handed  anarcliism,  blind,  passion-driven  and 
unreasoning,  at  e.very  new  appeal  may  ruthlessly 
take  into  its  own  treasonable  hands  the  authority  of 
the  State,  how  may  we  expect  our  great  Republic 
to  endure?  Jurymen  are  members  of  our  churches. 
These  churches  have  it  in  their  power  in  the  name 
of  Almighty  God  to  command  men  who  name  the 
name  of  Christ  to  cease  doing  evil  and  to  support 
and  pray  for  the  civil  powers,  which  are  ordained 


THE  PAST  AND  FUTURE  221 

of  God,  instead  of  treating  them  with  contempt. 
There  is  great  need  for  a  new  emphasis  on  the 
majesty  of  law  and  order  and  the  sacredness  of 
human  life.  Not  only  ar«  nivilization  and  religion 
disgra\?ed  by  the  unreasoning  mob,  but  also  by  dema- 
goguey  and  weaklings  in  office,  who  prostitute  the 
authority  vested  in  them  by  stirring  up  class  hatred, 
by  wholesale  pardon  of  criminals,  delays  in  judicial 
proceedings,  and  in  other  ways. 

13.  Peculiar  Responsibility  of  Baptists.  It  would 
be  a  serious  reflection  on  so  great  a  body  as  the 
Baptists  if  they  did  not  firmly,  uncompromisingly 
and  unanimously  set  their  faces  against  every  prac- 
tice which  opposes  the  dignity  and  sanctity  of  the 
civil  authority.  Baptists  more  than  any  other  Chris- 
tian body  emphasize  the  individual.  Therefore  we 
have  a  peculiar  obligation  to  show  to  the  world  that 
the  rights  of  the  individual  may  be  cultivated,  while 
at  the  same  time  he  is  brought  under  subjection  to 
right  authority.  If  the  mob  and  the  spirit  of  anarchy 
rear  their  blear-eyed  and  impudent  heads  where 
Baptists  are  strong,  is  it  not  a  call  to  our  churches 
to  humble  themselves  before  God  and  cry  mightily 
unto  him  that  he  may  show  us  wherein  we  have  been 
at  fault  in  our  instruction  of  the  people?  If,  em- 
phasing  individual  rights,  we  fail  to  teach  men  the 
large  responsibilities  which  of  necessity  grow  out 
of  the  possession  of  those  rights,  may  we  not  justly 
be  held  accountable  for  the  failure,  both  by  God  and 
by  society?  The  Baptist  doctrine  of  democracy  car- 
ries with  it  a  fearful  responsibility  to  so  educate  the 
people  in  the  spirit  and  practice  of  real  Christianity 


222  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

that  they  may  not  stumble  over  a  misunderstood 
dogma  of  liberty  into  the  pit  of  bloody  anarchism. 

14.  Roman  Catholicism.  At  the  antipodes  to  the 
democracy  of  Baptists  and  the  premium  which  they 
put  upon  the  character  and  intelligence  of  the  in- 
dividual is  Roman  Catholicism,  with  its  Pope  and 
hierarchy,  claiming  supreme  authority  over  souls  and 
over  civil  governments  and  powers.  The  hierarchy 
is  today  making  a  superlative  effort  to  get  America 
under  its  control.  While  it  boasts  numbers  and 
powers  which  it  does  not  possess,  yet  it  is  a  real  and 
great  menace  to  the  continued  dominance  of  the 
evangelical  faith  and  to  the  civic  ideals  of  this  great 
Republic.  Seeing  in  the  public  schools  a  mighty 
power  to  help  our  democratic  institutions,  the  hier- 
archy insolently  inveighs  against  them,  while  at  the 
same  time  it  seeks  to  fill  them  with  Romanist  teach- 
ers. The  presence  and  active  scheming  of  this  great 
and  subtle  religio-political  organization  in  America 
is  a  challenge  to  every  evangelical  body  and  its  mis- 
sionary and  educational  agencies  to  teach  the  peo- 
ple the  facts  about  the  octopus.  The  religious  news- 
papers should  be  encouraged  to  keep  open  to  the 
un-American  doings  of  Romanists,  in  order  that  the 
people  may  be  informed.  The  daily  secular  paper  for 
the  most  part  will  not  touch  the  subject,  unless  it 
be  to  please  the  Romanists.  At  the  same  time. 
Mission  Board  workers  should  use  every  opportunity 
to  win  the  misguided  adherents  of  the  Catholic  faith. 
"We  shall  make  a  great  blunder  if  we  look  upon  them 
as  beyond  the  reach  of  the  gospel  of  Christ.  Home 
and  State  missionaries  are  winning  them.    In  a  New 


THE  PAST  AND  FUTURE  223 

Orleans  campaign  of  the  Home  Board  Evangelistic 
Department  fifteen  Romanists  were  won  for  baptism 
in  a  single  meeting  at  a  mission  station.  There  is 
need  that  efforts  of  this  kind  be  greatly  enlarged. 
To  win  Catholics  means  that  we  must  increase  and 
intensify  our  mission  work  in  the  cities,  for  Roman- 
ism is  almost  exclusively  a  city  problem  in  the  South. 
15.  Materialism.  With  pathetic  and  wearisome 
repetition  history  teaches  that  commercial  prosperity 
has  often  carried  in  it  the  germs  of  national  disinte- 
gration, that  when  wealth  piled  up  men  decayed. 
The  South  today  has  marvelous  wealth  and  pros- 
perity. Have  Southern  men  and  women  strength 
enough  to  prosper  without  retrograding  in  moral 
stamina  and  character?  "We  have  had  a  past  replete 
with  greatness  and  with  high  idealism.  How  riches 
have  come,  and  yet  greater  riches  lie  just  ahead.  In 
like  conditions  many  nations  have  decayed  at  heart, 
and  God  has  cast  them  out,  because  their  works  were 
evil.  How  will  it  be  in  the  South?  Wealth  and  the 
pre-occupation  and  pleasure  and  gratification  and 
soft  comforts  which  money  buys,  are  now  testing 
Southern  character,  of  what  it  is  made.  What  shall 
it  profit  the  South  if  it  has  lands  and  railroads  and 
cities  and  fields  and  mines  and  stocks  and  bonds,  if 
the  rich  grind  the  poor,  if  the  workers  go  sullen  to 
their  tasks,  and  their  wives  are  driven  to  despair? 
What  is  wealth  worth,  if  its  seductions  vitiate  the 
character  and  lives  of  our  children?  There  is  a 
wealth  which  is  poverty.  Such  will  be  the  wealth 
of  the  South,  if  men  are  not  big  enough  and  good 
enough  to  consecrate  their  wealth  to  God  and  to 


224  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

the  work  of  human  betterment.  True  we  are  mak- 
ing much  progress  in  mission  work.  Still  what  we 
give  is  as  a  pittance  compared  with  what  we  ought. 
We  gave  for  all  definite  mission  work  last  year 
five  cents  per  month  per  member!  Thousands  of 
our  church  members  spend  more  on  maintaining  an 
automobile  for  six  months  than  they  give  to  sup- 
port the  gospel  of  Christ  in  their  lives.  The 
value  of  the  jewels  and  hats  of  the  women  in  some 
larger  churches  in  the  cities  would  more  than  equal 
all  they  give  to  God  for  twenty  years. 

16.  A  Time  for  Prayer  and  Committal.  Is  the 
fabric  of  the  Southern  Christian  character  so  shot 
through  with  spiritual  purpose  that  it  can  match 
the  powers  of  worldliness  and  bring  them  into  cap- 
tivity? Has  the  fat-heartedness  of  material  plenty 
robbed  us  of  high  thoughts,  noble  dreams,  and  holy 
purposes  for  Christ?  Southern  Baptists  need  to 
dedicate  themselves  afresh  to  God  and  to  cry  might- 
ily unto  him.  The  demons  of  sin  are  more  subtly 
entrenched  in  the  institutions  of  society  today  than 
ever  before.  They  are  bolder  and  better  organized. 
They  have  all  the  powers  of  invention,  of  culture,  of 
learning,  and  of  the  printing  press,  to  help  them 
deceive  themselves  and  lead  others  to  destruction. 
No  human  wisdom,  no  philosophy  of  man,  and  not 
even  any  preaching  of  truth,  will  drive  out  these 
devils,  except  as  we  by  prayer  and  worship  bring 
down  the  Spirit  of  the  Most  High  God.  Always 
learning  and  never  coming  to  wisdom,  the  sin  de- 
ceived world  looks  everywhere  else  for  aid.  But 
only  through  Christ  is  there  aid  and  only  through 


THE  PAST  AND  FUTURE  226 

entire  dependence  upon  and  surrender  to  him  can  we 
command  that  aid. 

17.  Preach  the  Truth  of  the  Word.  With  print- 
ing presses  daily  turning  out  pages  by  the  millions, 
our  day  seems  to  have  more  than  matched  the  in- 
crease in  quantity  by  the  falling  off  in  quality.  The 
more  prominent  secular  press  is  open  to  the  charge 
of  being  run  in  the  interest  of  the  advertiser  rather 
than  the  public  welfare.  In  fiction  the  ephemeral 
and  superficial  thrive  and  even  the  libidinous  boldly 
flaunts  itself  to  corrupt  the  minds  of  our  youth. 
There  is  also  much  reading  of  a  better  quality,  which 
is  yet  not  of  the  best.  The  reading  of  the  Bible  is 
much  neglected  and  a  certain  section  of  so-called  re- 
ligious teachers  are  coming  to  preach  little  of  the  doc- 
trines of  the  word  of  God,  except  the  Sermon  on 
the  Mount.  We  wish  we  could  believe  that  this  con- 
tinual agitation  has  not  had  an  effect  on  some  of 
our  Baptist  pulpits,  but  we  fear  it  has.  There  i» 
need  for  more  doctrinal  preaching  than  ever.  Our 
Sunday  School  Board  is  doing  a  great  work  of  in- 
doctrination through  its  lessons  and  its  special  work- 
ers. Our  Mission  Boards  are  great  conservators  of 
sound  doctrines,  and  yet  the  fact  that  in  them  Bap- 
tists have  institutionalized  a  propaganda  for  the 
single  doctrine  of  missions,  while  they  have  not  to 
an  equal  extent  institutionalized  a  propaganda  for 
their  other  doctrines,  carries  in  it  a  certain  danger 
of  lack  of  balance  in  emphasis.  Paul  was  the  great- 
est missionary  and  he  was  also  the  greatest  preacher 
of  doctrines.  Some  of  them  Peter  declared  hard  to 
understand,  but  they  were  a  part  of  the  gospel  of 


226  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

the  most  powerful  missionary  who  ever  sought  to 
reach  with  salvation  the  sin-opiated  hearts  of  men. 
In  a  day  when  the  learned  sophistries  of  men  have 
explained  away  every  cardinal  truth  of  the  Bible,  the 
Baptist  message  must  ring  as  clear  as  a  bell  on 
Christ  as  Saviour,  on  the  hopelessly  lost  condition 
of  man,  on  believer's  baptism,  on  the  competency 
of  the  soul  with  God,  and  on  other  great  doctrines 
of  the  word. 

18.  Mightily  Support  Missions.  Never  was  there 
a  day  in  which  the  success  of  Baptists  so  largely 
depended  upon  strengthening  in  the  work  of  State 
and  Home  Mission  Boards.  The  conditions  out- 
lined above  are  only  a  few  outstanding  char- 
acteristics of  the  tangled  skein  of  life  as  it 
is  lived  in  the  New  Civilization.  Diagnosis  is 
useful,  but  we  have  compressed  into  the  last  few 
pages  only  a  glimpse  of  a  few  of  the  problems  which, 
unsolved,  will  bring  disease  to  the  body  social  and 
politic.  We  shall  not  even  try  to  catalogue  many 
other  similar  distinguishing  traits  of  our  New  Day. 
Many  as  are  the  uncharted  whirlpools  and  dangerous 
surfs  in  the  sea  of  common  human  experience  today, 
the  great  Captain  of  our  salvation  has  never  lost  a 
soul  who  sailed  with  him.  Human  nature  of  the 
twentieth  century  has  new  and  unaccustomed  be- 
setments  to  negotiate,  but  human  nature  and  human 
need  are  the  same  and  the  power  of  God  is  not  short- 
ened. He  who,  after  he  had  broken  the  bonds  of 
death,  met  his  disciples  on  the  mountain  in  Galilee, 
told  them:  "All  power  is  given  unto  me  in  heaven 


THE  PAST  AND  FUTURE  227 

and  in  earth."  Then  he  gave  them  the  Great  Com- 
mission, in  obeying  which  from  that  day  until  now 
his  followers  have  been  able  to  overcome  sin  and 
drive  out  the  powers  of  darkness.  In  the  face  of 
human  sin  and  weakness  and  ignorance  and  preju- 
dice and  passion,  in  despite  of  the  prince  of  the  power 
of  the  air,  who  has  in  every  generation  injected  into 
the  thoughts  of  men  and  nations  the  most  subtle 
and  terrible  suggestions  of  evil,  this  gospel  of  salva- 
tion has  triumphantly  made  its  way  in  the  world. 
We  have  a  difficult  New  Day,  but  we  need  have  no 
fear,  if  we  will  humble  ourselves  before  our  Lord 
Jesus  and  be  loyal  and  faithful.  ' '  Lo,  I  am  with  you 
always,  even  to  the  end  of  the  world,"  is  his  prom- 
to  those  who  faithfully  obey  him.  That  promise  has 
been  abundantly  fulfilled.  If  the  problems  of  so- 
ciety pile  mountain  high,  we  shall  still  be  world- 
conquerers  in  Christ,  just  so  long  as  we  claim  his 
promise  and  obey  his  commands. 

18.  Our  Need  and  Our  Prayer.  Our  intense  life 
demands  alertness,  but  that  is  the  least  it  demands 
of  the  Lord 's  people.  Its  over-topping  demand  is  for 
a  new  and  full  committal  of  ourselves  and  of  all 
which  is  ours  to  him  for  service.  The  enemy  is  better 
organized  than  ever.  Wherever  the  opportunity  offers 
he  has  entrenched  himself.  But  we  follow  a  Com- 
mander who  never  lost  a  battle  when  his  followers 
were  loyal,  and  who  has  a  thousand  times  turned 
seeming  defeat  into  victory.  Largely  through  State 
and  Home  Mission  Baptists  in  the  South  have  gath- 
ered in  the  great  company  of  recruits  with  which  our 
spiritual  body  now  faces  the  powers  of  sin  and  dark- 


228  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

ness.  With  even  greater  need  for  effective  recruit- 
ing today,  we  confront  the  coUossal  task  of  training 
those  who  are  already  in  camp  to  fight  the  new  and 
strange  devices  with  which  the  enemy  seeks  to  de- 
stroy the  citadel  of  Man  Soul.  God  of  mercy  and 
of  grace,  God  of  our  fathers,  open  thou  the  eyes  of 
this  people  that  they  may  see.  Make  attentive  their 
hearts  that  they  may  understand.  Give  strength  and 
direction  to  our  frail  human  hands,  we  humbly  be- 
seech thee,  that  we  may  perform  the  doing  of  thy 
will.  Holy  Father,  keep  this  goodly  land  for  thy 
glory.  Preserve  here  a  people  who  shall  honor  and 
serve  thee.  Drive  out  every  unclean  thing  and 
all  that  which  maketh  a  lie.  May  thy  Spirit  come 
in  mighty  power  upon  this  Southern  Baptist 
body,  that  it  may  honor  God  and  serve  him 
with  its  whole  heart  and  follow  him  in  all  his  ap- 
pointed ways.  Use  us,  gracious  Father,  that  we  may 
do  valiant  exploits,  holding  this  fair  Southland 
for  thee.  Make  us  strong  and  wise  according  to  the 
needs  of  our  own  times.  Graciously  bless  the  Mission 
Boards  which  thy  people  are  using  to  these  ends. 
Make  them  wise  and  true  and  devoted  and  give  them 
to  merit  thy  approval  and  that  of  thy  people  whose 
they  are.  Make,  we  pray  thee,  the  South  a  spiritual 
dynamic  to  bless  the  nation,  and  make  the  nation  a 
blessing  to  all  nations.  And  may  thy  Kingdom  come 
and  thy  will  be  done  on  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven  j 
as  we  ask  it  in  Jesus'  name.    Amen! 


"Mine  eyes  have  seen  the  glory  of  the  conning  of  the  Lord: 

He  hath  loos'd  the  fateful  lightning  of  His  terrible,  swift  sword» 


THE  PAST  AND  FUTURE  229 

He  is  trampling  out  the  vintage,  where  the  grapes  of  wrath  are 
stored, 

His  truth  is  marching  on. 

"He  has  sounded  forth  the  trumpet  that  shall  never  call  retreat ; 
He  is  sifting  out  the  hearts  of  men  before  His  judgment  seat; 
Oh,  be  swift  my  soul  to  answer  Him,  be  jubilant  my  feet! 
Our  God  is  marching  on," 


TEST  QUESTIONS  ON  CHAPTER  XH. 

1.  Tell  what  Cicero  and  Emerson  said  about  the  past.  Tell 
why  authors  have  been  discouraged  from  writing  the  his- 
tory of  Southern  Baptists.  Give  a  glimpse  of  the  scope 
of  this   book. 

2.  Recount  evidence  that  God  has  been  leading  Southern 
Baptists.  Recount  the  different  periods  covered  by  the 
book. 

3.  Show  how  record  of  Baptist  missions  in  the  South  offers 
ground  for  encouragement  and  anxiety.  Have  the  Baptist 
victories  been  won  by  the  majority  or  minority? 

4.  Give  population  and  Baptist  membership  in  the  South. 
What  bearing  has  our  wealth  on  the  present  religious 
outlook? 

5.  Describe  the  effect  of  inter-communication  and  city  build- 
ing on  rural  population.  Tell  how  city  strength  is  fur- 
nished by  country  churches.  Is  our  problem  one  of  decadent 
or  undeveloped  country  churches?  Describe  our  present 
Baptist  opportunity  in   the   country. 

6.  Tell  of  the  need  of  a  Building  Loan  Fund. 

7.  Tell  of  the  Southern  white  man's  obligation  to  the  Negro. 
Tell  of  the  good  work  by  the  Home  Mission  Board  for 
the  Negro.  Tell  of  the  duty  of  Christian  bodies  to  help 
the  Negro. 

8.  Describe  what  the  immigrant  has  done  for  New  England. 
Describe  the  result  of  unassimilated  immigration,  as  shown 
in  America  during  the  European  War.  Tell  of  the  number 
and  needs  of  immigrants  in  the   South. 


280  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

9.  Tell  of  present  city  growth  in  the  South.  Ought  we  to 
be  proud  of  the  increase  in  numbers  in  cities?  Tell  of 
the  factory  towns  and  living  conditions.  Tell  of  efforts 
of  the  management  of  cotton  mills  for  improved  condi- 
tions. Have  religious  bodies  the  right  to  speak  out  con- 
cerning the  welfare  of  factory  people?  Would  it  not  be 
better  for  the  manufacturing  to  be  done  in  open  country 
places  rather  than  in  congested  cities? 

10.  Show  how  many  Socialism  writers  are  strong  on  diagnosis 
but  weak  in  dynamic  force.  What  is  needed  in  order 
that  the  Utopian  schemes  of  Socialism  may  be  realized. 
Tell  of  the  inter-dependence  of  man  in  the  present  social 
scheme.     What  is  the  great  need  of  today? 

11.  What  is  the  method  of  Christ  for  saving  society?  Is  the 
salvation  of  the  individual  as  necessary  today  as  in  the 
pioneer  days?  Tell  of  the  present  disposition  to  blame 
the  fault  of  individuals  on  society.  Tell  of  the  necessity 
of  helping  the  week  and  needy. 

12.  Describe  the  necessity  of  a  gospel  which  relates  itself 
helpfully  to  civil  authority.  Tell  of  the  responsibility  of 
Christian  bodies  for  lawlessness.  Tell  why  our  pulpits 
ought  to  ring  with  sermons  against  the  mob  and  the 
demagogue. 

13.  Tell  why  Baptists  have  a  special  responsibility  to  exorcise 
the  spirit  of  anarchism  in  society.  Does  the  Baptist  doc- 
trine of  democracy  carry  with  it  great  responsibility  to 
Christianize  the  people? 

14.  Show  how  Roman  Catholicism  is  at  the  antipodes  from 
Baptists.  Tell  of  the  Romanist  effort  to  control  America 
and  their  inconsistent  attitude  toward  the  public  schools. 
Ought  our  religious  newspapers  to  educate  the  people 
about  the  un-American  work  of  Romanism?  Tell  of  the 
duty  of  Mission  Boards  and  churches. 

15.  Describe  the  spiritual  danger  which  comes  from  material 
wealth  in  the  South  today.  Has  great  wealth  often  been 
associated  with  national  decay?  Is  our  progress  in  mis- 
sions commensurate  with  the  ability  of  our  people  and 
with  the  great  needs? 


THE  PAST  AND  FUTURE  281 

16.  Show  how  Baptists  need  to  dedicate  themselves  afresh 
to  God.  Show  how  the  forces  of  evil  are  bolder  and 
harder  to  conquer  now. 

17.  Tell  of  the  dangers  of  an  irresponsible  press.  Tell  of  the 
necessity  of  more  doctrinal  preaching.  Tell  of  Paul  as 
an  example  of  doctrine  and  missions. 

18.  Tell  the  need  for  a  great  mission  program  now.  Show 
how  our  Lord  Jesus  is  sufficient  for  the  needs  of  our  day. 

19.  What  committal  of  God's  people  is  necessary  in  order  to 
win  and  hold  the  forces  of  our  country  for  Jesus?  Show 
the  centrality  of  the  Mission  Boards  as  agencies  through 
which  Baptists  may  project  their  saving  impact.  Ought 
Baptists  by  prayer  consciously  to  dedicate  themselves  to 
these  great  tasks? 


SUGGESTIONS  TO  TEACHERS. 

It  is  earnestly  recommended  that  only  one  chapter  be  used 
for  a  lesson,  but  the  chapters  have  been  so  arranged  that  each 
couple  of  them,  one  and  two,  three  and  four,  etc.,  treat  subjects 
which  are  of  very  close  kin.  Therefore  it  will  be  found 
practicable,  when  only  six  periods  can  be  given  to  the  book,  to 
take  two  chapters  for  each  lesson. 

If  the  teacher  wishes  variety,  he  may  have  one  or  two  mem- 
bers of  the  class  to  investigate  some  special  subject  bearing 
on  each  chapter  and  let  them  present  their  findings  in  a  five- 
to  seven-minute  paper  at  the  class  meeting.  It  will  be  well  in 
assigning  the  lesson  for  the  next  period  to  call  attention  to 
such  points  as  may  help  to  center  the  students'  minds  on  the 
central   truth   to   be   brought  out. 

It  may  be  suggested  to  teachers  who  are  taking  up  such 
work  for  the  first  time,  that  the  first  meeting  may  be  profitably 
used  in  organizing  the  class,  giving  the  general  scope  of  the 
work  to  be  done,  and  assigning  the  first  lesson.  But,  as  many 
will  be  pressed  for  time,  it  is  also  possible  for  the  teacher  to 
present  the  first  lesson  at  that  meeting  in  the  form  of  a  lecture, 
with  the  understanding  that  class  recitations  will  be  expected 
at  succeeding  meetings.  It  is  advised  that  not  less  than  an 
hour  be  given  to  actual  class  work  at  each  meeting. 

It  would  give  to  the  work  of  the  class  a  fitting  prominence 
and  dignity  if  at  the  close  of  the  course  of  study  the  pastor 
should  be  asked  to  preach  a  special  sermon  on  Baptist  Growth 
in  and  Service  to  the  South,  under  the  auspices  of  the  Mission 
Study  Class.  It  might  be  even  more  fitting  to  secure  the  State 
Secretary  to  render  this  service.  Such  a  service  could  not 
but  thrill  the  whole  church  with  something  of  the  spirit  and 
purpose  which  the  class  will  have  gathered  from  its  study, 
and  contribute  to  a  wholesome  denominational  spirit 

These  lessons  would  be  eminently  adapted  for  lecture  use 
by  the  pastor  in  the  mid-week  prayer  meeting  service,  using  a 
lesson  each  week  or  every  alternate  week. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

Benedict — History  of  the  Baptists.  • 

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Cook,  H.  T. — Education  in  South  Carolina  Under  Baptist 
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234  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

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Tupper,  H.  A. — History  of  First  Baptist  Church  of  Charleston, 

S.  C. 
Vail,  A.  L. — Morning  Hour  of  American  Baptist  Missions. 
Vail,  A.  L. — Baptists  Mobilized  for  Missions. 

These  books  and  others  have  been  consulted  by  the  author 
and  found  helpful.  As  the  average  student  and  teacher  cannot 
well  get  hold  of  all  these,  the  author  takes  the  liberty  of  indicat- 
ing here  a  few  of  the  books  which  he  thinks  every  student  and 
especially  every  teacher  should  try  to  get  By  all  means  he 
should  have  Riley's  History  of  Baptists  in  the  South,  East  of 
the  Mississippi,  and  C.  F.  James's  Struggle  for  Religious 
Liberty  in  Virginia.  Many  other  volumes  are  valuable,  but 
these  will  be  especially  needed  for  reference  and  further 
study.  Dr.  Riley's  book  may  be  had  from  any  Baptist  book 
store.  The  book  by  James  may  be  had  from  the  Baptist  Book 
Concern,  Louisville,  Ky. 


REFERENCE  BOOKS  ON  VARIOUS  CHAPTERS. 

For  the  convenience  of  teachers  one  or  more  reference  books 
are  here  suggested  for  use  in  the  study  of  each  chapter.  Rile/s 
History  of  Southern  Baptists  will  be  helpful  on  all  chapters 
up  to  X. 

I.  Life  in  America  One  Hundred  Years  Ago. 

Semple's   History   of   Virginia   Baptists. 

II.  Fruits  and  Flowers,  or  Forty-Six  Years  in  Texas. 

Cook's  Biography  of  Richard  Furman,  or  any  other 
volume  giving  early  history  of  Baptists  in  Associations 
or  States. 

III.  Semple's  History  of  Virginia  Baptists. 

James's  Struggle  for  Religious  Liberty  in  Virginia. 

IV.  Same    as    for    III    and    Articles    on    Fight    for    Religious 

Liberty  in  Vol.  X  of  the  South  in  the  Building  of  the 
Nation.  May  be  found  in  many  public  and  private 
libraries. 

V.  Riley's  History  of  Alabama  Baptists. 

Spencer's  History  of  Kentucky  Baptists. 
Johnson's  History  of  North  Carolina  Baptists. 
Furman's  Charleston  Association. 
Cook's  Baptist  Education  in  South  Carolina. 

VI.  Same  as  for  V. 

Jubilee  Volume,  Kentucky  Baptists. 

VII.  Miss  Heck's  In  Royal  Service. 
Frost's  Sunday  School   Board  History. 

VIII.  Any  State  Baptist  History. 
Baptist  Home  Missions,  Chap.  II. 

IX.  The   South   in   the   Building   of   the   Nation,   Ante-bellum 

period. 

Home  Mission  Task,  Chap.  I,  and  Baptist  Home  Missions. 

X.  The   South  in  the  Building  of  the   Nation. 

Johnson's  History  of  North  Carolina  Baptists. 
Home  Mission  Task,  and  Baptist  Home  Missions. 

XI.  The  work   in   this   chapter   is   from   unpublished   records. 

XII.  Books  on  Immigrants,  Country  Church,  Mountaineers, 
Negroes,  or  Social  Service  will  help.  So  will  any  work 
on  General  Home  Missions. 


APPENDIX  A. 

ON  THE 

ORIGIN  OF  THE  BAPTIST  EDUCATIONAL  MOVEMENT. 

Dr.  Richard  Furman  was  elected  the  first  President  of  the 
Triennial  Convention  in  1814  and  was  re-elected  in  1817. 
On  the  latter  occasion  he  addressed  the  body  on  Christian 
education,  to  which  he  had  given  his  best  thought  and  energy 
for  twenty-six  years.  Of  that  address  a  current  number  of  The 
Latter  Day  Luminary  said:  "The  President  having,  with  the 
approbation  of  the  Convention,  placed  before  the  body  in  a 
speech  of  considerable  length  and  great  interest,  the  very 
serious  and  religious  importance  of  a  well-informed  ministry, 
the  Convention  resolved  unanimously  that  the  communication 
made  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Furman,  relative  to  the  education  of 
pious  young  men  who  appear  to  be  called  of  God  to  the 
work  of  the  ministry,  be  referred  and  specially  recommended 
to  the  Board." 

Dr.  H.  T.  Cook,  Professor  of  Greek  in  Furman  University, 
Greenville,  South  Carolina,  to  whom  Baptists  are  indebted  for 
bringing  to  light  new  and  important  facts  bearing  upon  this 
question,  quotes  as  follows,  the  Missionary  Magazine  of  July, 
1818,  in  his  book,  Education  in  South  Carolina  Under  Baptist 
Auspices,  concerning  the  action  of  the  Convention  Board: 
"The  subject  of  education  occupied  a  large  share  of  the 
attention  of  the  Board  at  its  annual  meeting.  The  committee 
appointed  by  the  Board  to  consider  the  plan  of  education 
submitted  by  the  venerable  President,  Doctor  Furman,  reported 
that,  owing  to  the  importance  of  the  subject  and  the  necessity 
of  waiting  the  openings  of  Providence  and  the  liberality  of 
the  brethren  in  various  parts  of  the  Union,  they  have  not  been 
able  to  return  their  ideas  so  fully  or  so  soon  as  they  could 
have  wished.  They  approve  in  the  main,  highly,  of  the  plan 
the  President  proposed,  and  are  of  the  opinion  that  it  will 
ultimately,  in  substance  be  found  in  successful  operation." 


APPENDIX  237 

Judge  Matthias  B.  Tallmadge,  of  New  York,  a  member  oi 
the  Board  and  a  friend  of  Doctor  Furman,  wrote  him  a  letter 
on  May  30,  1817,  referring  to  the  recent  Convention  meeting 
and  concluding:  "The  entering  wedge  for  the  promotion  of 
education  has  been  so  far  driven  that  it  may  be  hoped  another 
Convention  will  be  able  to  give  effective  organization  and 
efficacy  to  your  excellent  views  on  this  subject."  (See 
Biography  of  Richard  Furman  by  H.  T.  Cook,  page  103.) 

In  1841  Dr.  James  B.  Taylor  published  a  Memoir  of  Luther 
Rice,  in  which  it  was  claimed  that  Rice  had  done  more  than 
any  other  man  to  change  the  attitude  of  Baptists  toward 
education.  Other  writers  have  generally  followed  Taylor's 
Memoirs,  including  Cathcart's  Baptist  Encyclopedia,  which  is 
considered  standard. 

"This,"  writes  Doctor  Cook  in  Biography  of  Richard  Fur- 
man, page  104,  "passed  for  reliable  information  on  the  subject, 
much  of  which  has  no  objective  reality.  It  is  at  variance  with 
the  views  of  men  who  were  well   acquainted  with  the  facts." 

One  of  these  men,  quoted  by  Professor  Cook,  was  Dr.  S.  S. 
Cutting,  who  in  a  speech  at  Philadelphia,  in  1878,  on  "The 
Origin  of  Our  Denominational  Work  in  Education,"  said:  "Of 
this  character  likewise  was  the  far  greater  service  rendered  by 
the  Charleston  Baptist  Education  Fund,  instituted  in  1791, 
under  the  presidency  of  Richard  Furman,  combining  the  rep- 
resentatives of  a  considerable  number  of  churches,  and  acting 
with  great  liberality  and  efficiency  down  to  a  period  when,  a 
quarter  of  a  century  later,  its  distinguished  leader  became 
the  leader  of  a  far  greater  movement  *  »  »  when  at  the  first 
triennial  meeting  of  the  Baptist  General  Convention  held  in  this 
city,  the  President,  Dr.  Richard  Furman,  brought  forward  the 
Plan  of  Education,  as  the  result  of  which  the  sphere  of  the 
Convention  was  made  to  include  educational  organizations. 
The  Convention  now  entered  upon  its  educational  work.  The 
trumpet  tones  of  Luther  Rice's  voice,  as  on  his  wonderful 
journeys  he  traversed  the  country  from  New  England  to  the 
Gulf,  preaching  the  crusade  of  missions,  proclaimed  at  the 
same  time  the  cr^isade  of  education." 

In  a  subsequent  letter,  Doctor  Furman  himself  in  effect  said 


238  BAPTIST  MISSIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH 

that  the  plan  which  he  had  for  long  worked  in  South  Carolina 
was  the  plan  which  he  presented  in  his  Convention  address 
in  1817  and  which  the  Convention  adopted.  He  writes  (Biog- 
raphy of  Richard  Furman,  page  106) :  "The  plan  put  before  the 
Convention  by  the  President  at  its  last  meeting,  has  been  in 
operation  among  the  churches  with  which  this  committee  are 
immediately  connected  for  nearly  thirty  years  and  has  been 
proved  by  time  and  experience  to  be  well  adapted." 

Dr.  James  C.  Furman,  son  of  Richard  Furman,  and  for 
long  President  of  Furman  University,  in  History  of  the  First 
Church  of  Charleston,  says:  "It  is  not  generally  known  that 
the  widespread  interest  in  denominational  education  which 
shows  itself  now  among  our  brethren  of  the  North  had  a 
Southern  origin.  But  it  is  so  nevertheless.  There  was  no 
Newton,  no  Rochester,  no  Hamilton  in  1814  when  the  Mission- 
ary Convention  was  held  in  Philadelphia.  In  1817  the  Presi- 
dent was  asked  to  address  the  assembled  delegates  on  a  subject 
which  he  held  to  be  of  vital  importance.  From  a  heart  sur- 
charged with  concern  on  the  subject  of  education,  especially 
that  of  the  rising  ministry,  he  made  an  address  the  effect  of 
which  was  powerful  and  instantaneous.  From  that  day  a  great 
idea  was  born  in  the  Baptist  public  mind.  His  own  views 
contemplated  a  central  institution  at  Washington,  with  institu- 
tions preparatory  to  be  founded  .in  separate  States.  Waterville 
and  Hamilton  were  probably  the  direct  outgrowth  of  the 
original  plan.  So  were  Furman  and  Mercer.  Indeed,  the 
whole  later  denominational  movement  in  favor  of  education, 
originated  from  the  impulse." 

Luther  Rice,  canvassing  for  missions  with  great  energy  and 
ability,  had  also  seen  the  necessity  of  more  interest  in  Baptist 
education  and  had  agitated  in  that  behalf,  but  the  Baptist 
movement  was  set  on  foot  at  Philadelphia  in  1817  by  the 
eloquent  speech  of  the  distinguished  President  of  the  Con- 
vention, who  for  nearly  thirty  years  had  been  working  and 
planning  in  this  same  interest  with  concern  for  it  Luther 
Rice  became  the  agent  of  the  Convention  for  this  cause  in 
1817,  as  well  as  for  missions,  and  his  infectious  spirit  and 
eloquent  addresses  did  much  to  arouse  the  people.  On  Rice's 
account,   as  well  as  on  account  of  truth  and  the  memory  of 


APPENDIX  239 

Richard  Furman,  the  great  Southerner,  it  is  unfortunate  a 
fuller  knowledge  of  the  facts  has  not  been  had  until  they 
were  unearthed  by  Doctor  Cook.  For  further  study  of  the 
subject  see  Biography  of  Richard  Furman  and  Education  in 
South  Carolina  under  Baptist  Auspices,  75c.  each.  May  be  had 
from  the  author,  Dr.  H.  T.  Cook,  Furman  University,  Green- 
ville, S.  C. 


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